

SR • vSk , *; 'ijiTK 10 .•‘ * i>?’ ‘i ' ^ 

Sltf^cV* • v• At’^V^^-S*'*' *»*!£' ♦«" * 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 





DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 


*•'. ji»iV- , - 


Sk* 


K?4 aS 


.:_ 



-JR, i,Ta 
; 




: 

: ■ ■ '• - : ' ;;:. 

•' - -' '•• .V.-. : • V . \ ! ..' .. ' a >.- . i* . • - . •• M .-*, 


P -*SiM 


S^Ssk ' 


•;v. -.<1 .-j* •*' >-.-.r : ki- v- -«Kv 


- Ashw^M ^ 

'f'&Si&WgXfiiP t% '*$5 

>?«•. fWjg ft 

•v-.'r;- £s«k».<£Kf 4 Wf 8 (*. 

, .- ■••’ . > : fe;J ■' •.. 

• '• -*t- ? -.i i**V * -.nV* •*; V ■ *> -'Tv. \ '/ I ••' 

W® '• W% $» >w ap 4 


Prepared by 

State Hi^h School Inspector , '• ., 

. 

v-'? ’"n:. 1 - - ':’ ;;. -? . 


|#« 


I • 

• -T W 

|$%$J 

’'*ftC C*< -*t 

■: ■■; - . ' 


M. ;t '•’ • , ■ li: 


; 

•• r/••-,' , -: •■ :-•> 




»- v 


SKsSL’I 




m 


^ J&r. - ■ -j ^.» •' --■ J.. 


= 


V 


'•.•■• - » , 





Issued by 
JAS. H. HOPE 


^ *> ,■ .. 

-,*1 .’7 ■ .•;i;-' ■ * v- k 1 - 1 , - 

SBRSIctSHrS K'V* ,r "-tS'«<>' •.*: •.’•'«••■•* 


11 ^^0MW^)c^k 


fe"*y 





:; 








>>*/■ >>» »'■ 'A’/ *8',^ 

;.v’,:-, v y. •;., j.»t. ‘...vvtsWf 

^vr>>;'- *, 

'f «.'•'>*'-\f *'• ’4A’. - ' > 

. - a. . . , ^ . 1a . 

Ip^« 





aK,»-.v 

gS^,.>yv 

* *te' v ■ 




■;^a 


■' V Sr'■; >1 ’’A 4 




i&.'i-A' -r«SKsi i:yt^lfcvy-'v''iHw 


HLCvl .* dr? **■{•■/■:■'. ?V^ 5 '.* &' . 

' ilRi® ilk' 




ffly#;. |fm- 























^>ou^ C ft-tol i y\a, He^V. o| ^.(Auc*<aV\o^, 

High School Manual 
for Administrators 
and Teachers 

PREPARED Bf 

B. L. PARKINSON 

STATE HIGH SCHOOL INSPECTOR 




1923 


Issued by 

JAS. H. HOPE 

State Superintendent of Education 


> •> 

bei 

Press of the R. L. Bryan Company 
Columbia, S. C. 





LB ibis 

LM 34- 

ins 


FOREWORD 

To High School Teachers and Administrators : 

In the preparation of this High School Manual much 
study and care and much expense have been required. 

It is without doubt the teacher’s friend in time of doubt 
or trouble. Make it your friend and counselor, for it is 
a safe guide. Use it for the development of South Carolina’s 
high schools. 

Jas. H. Hope, 

State Superintendent of Education. 




CONTENTS 



1 

£ 

Page 


Foreword .... .. 

Introduction. 

Aim and Objectives of Secondary Education 

High School Terminology. 

School Plant. 

Hygiene and Sanitation. 

When to Repair and Order Supplies. 

Records, Reports and Forms. 

Organization (Legal Aspects). 

Organization (Internal). 

School Finance. 

Extra Classroom Activities. 

The High School Library. 

Supervision of Classroom Instruction. 

Daily Session and Schedule of Classes. 

List of State Adopted High School Texts. . . . 

Curriculum Suggestions. 

Suggestions as to Courses. 

English Courses. 

History, Civics, and Government Courses. . . . 

Mathematics Courses. 

Science Courses. 

Latin Courses. 

Modern Languages. 

Health Instruction. 

Manual Arts Courses. 

Commercial Courses. 

Agriculture. 

Trade and Industrial Courses. 

Home Economics. 


4 

5 

6 
9 

14 

17 

17 

19 

24 

34 

36 

37 

38 
40 
43 
46 
51 
56 
85 
92 
97 

122 

127 

131 

133 

134 

135 
141 

143 

































INTRODUCTION 


The contents of this Manual represents with adaptations a 
consensus of what is considered to be the best theory and 
practice in the field of Secondary Education throughout the 
country. The practices recommended in this Manual have 
been tested by the author in his own experience as a high 
school teacher, high school principal, and city superintend¬ 
ent of schools. Constructive criticism of the Manual by 
those who use it is invited. By cooperating, persons in¬ 
terested in the high schools of the State can greatly improve 
them. The office of the High School Inspector welcomes such 
cooperation. 


B. L. Parkinson. 



AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 


Probably the most comprehensive statement of the aim 
and objectives of secondary education has been made by the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. 

“ Education in a democracy both within and without 

THE SCHOOL SHOULD DEVELOP IN EACH INDIVIDUAL THE 
KNOWLEDGE, INTERESTS, IDEALS, HABITS, AND POWERS WHERE¬ 
BY HE MAY FIND HIS PLACE AND USE THAT PLACE TO SHAPE 
BOTH HIMSELF AND SOCIETY TOWARD EVER NOBLER ENDS.” 

(Cardinal Principles, Page 9.) In order to realize this aim, 
the Commission regards the following as the main objectives 
of secondary education. (Cardinal Principles, Page 10.) 

1. Health 

2. Command of the fundamental processes 

3. Worthy home membership 

4. Vocation 

5. Citizenship 

6. Worthy use of leisure 

7. Ethical character. 

Many references in this Manual are made to the Reports 
of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Edu¬ 
cation. Fourteen of these reports have been issued in 
pamphlet form by the United States Bureau of Education, 
and copies may be purchased from the Superintendent of 
Public Documents, Washington, D. C., at prices indicated 
below. A complete file of these reports should be made 
available for use of high school teachers. 

Prices per 


Education Bulletin Copy 

1918, No. 35, Cardinal Principles of Secondary 

Education.. 5c 

1917, No. 51, Moral Values in Secondary Education. 5c 

1918, No. 19, Vocational Guidance in Secondary 

Education. 5c 

1915, No. 23, The Teaching of Community Civics. 10c 

1916, No. 28, The Social Studies in Secondary 

Education. 10c 


Aim 


Objectives 


Reports of 
the Commission 








6 


1917, No. 2, Reorganization of English in Sec¬ 
ondary Schools. 20c 

1917, No. 49, Music in Secondary Schools. 5c 

1917, No. 50, Physical Education in Secondary 

Schools .:. 5c 

1919, No. 55, Business Education in Secondary 

Schools. 10c 

1920, No. 1, The Problem of Mathematics in 

Secondary Education. 5c 

1920, No. 26, Reorganization of Science in Second¬ 
ary Education. 10c 

1920, No. 35, Agriculture in Secondary Schools. 10c 

1921, No. 5, Part-time Education of Various Types. 5c 

1922, No. 5, Reorganization of Home Economics 

in Secondary Schools. 5c 


Endorsed by 
High School 
Conference 


General 

Divisions 


Terminology 


HIGH SCHOOL TERMINOLOGY 

The terms below were presented at the general session 
of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Edu¬ 
cation at Richmond, Virginia, in 1914, and since then have 
been submitted to every State Superintendent of Education 
in the United States for criticism and suggestions. At the 
Winthrep Conference of High School Principals and City 
Superintendents in 1922, it was decided that this termi¬ 
nology should be used in South Carolina. 

In the United States, for the purpose of administration, 
schools are divided into two groups, the elementary or pre¬ 
adolescent group and the adolescent or secondary group. 
Practice in South Carolina includes the first seven grades 
in the elementary group, and the eighth, ninth, tenth and 
eleventh grades in the secondary group. 

1. Secondary Education: While elementary education 
consists primarily in organizing the instincts and impulses 
of preadolescent children into working tools and interests, 
secondary education has for its particular sphere the gen¬ 
eral information and training in the facts and arts of civi¬ 
lized life. Secondary education is primarily concerned on 
the side of subject matter, with the differentiated character 
of the various subjects of instruction. Secondary education 
appeals to the pupil’s appreciation, judgment, and sense of 
relative values. 












7 


2. High School: “High School is that part of the 
public school system in which are administered courses organ¬ 
ized into one or more cultural or vocational curriculums, 
(either or both), entrance to which ordinarily presupposes 
the completion of the elementary curriculum. . . . The 
existence of a high school implies in any case pupils, teachers, 
and courses organized into one or more curriculums and an 
institution whose internal government and administration is 
distinct from and coordinate with that of the elementary 
school. ” 

3. Kinds of High School Education: “The different 
kinds of high school education are general, vocational, pre- 
vocational, industrial, agricultural, domestic, commercial, 
and teacher training.” 

4. Comprehensive High School: “It may be defined 
as a school designed to discover and meet the needs of all 
pupils of high school age, living within the territory served 
by the high school.” 

5. “Specialized High School is a school designed to 
give a particular type of high school education to those 
pupils who need that type of education.” 

6. “Program of Studies refers to all the high school 
subjects offered in a given school without reference to any 
principle of organizing these subjects into curriculums.” 

7. “Curriculum is any systematic and schematic ar¬ 
rangement of courses which extends through a number of 
years, and which is planned for any clearly differentiated 
group of pupils.” 

8. “Course is the quantity, kind, and organization of 
subject matter of instruction in any high school offered with¬ 
in a definite period of time and for which a credit unit 
or fraction thereof is granted.” 

9. “A Constant is a course required of all pupils in 
any grade or year.” 

10. “Variable is a course not required of all pupils.” 

11. “Credit Unit represents a year’s' study in any high 
school subject, and constitutes approximately one-fourth of 
a full year’s work of a high school pupil.” 

12. “School Year is the normal time required for the 


completion of courses amounting to four credit units or their 
equivalent, and usually extends over a period of from thirty- 
six to forty-two weeks.” 

13. “High School Major means three credit units in 
sequence in any high school subject.” 

14. “High School Minor means two credit units of 
work similar in character to that described for a major.” 

15. “Graduation means ordinarily the completion of 
courses to the amount of fifteen credit units above the 
seventh grade and the fulfillment of requirements relating 
to standards of scholarship, observance of school discipline, 
and standards of morality generally. ” 

16. “Marks (not GRADES) means the qualitative esti¬ 
mates of a pupil’s work in courses which constitute the 
official school record.” 

17. “Grade (with the year, 9th, 10th, etc., attached), as 
10th Grade, is used to distinguish the ‘school class’ of high 
school pupils, rather than freshman, sophomore, etc.” 

18. “Pupil rather than student or scholar designates 
boys and girls enrolled in high schools.” 

19. “Extra Credit represents the satisfactory comple¬ 
tion of those additional requirements for graduation for 
which credit units are not granted; as, for example, is often 
the case with music, gymnasium work or sewing.” 

20. “Unit of Instruction usually represents divisions of 
the course whose treatment extends over a half dozen, or 
a dozen, or even more class periods, depending largely upon 
the character of subject matter.” 

21. “Elective System is the plan of administering the 
choice of pupils’ subjects and courses whereby each pupil 
may receive teachers’ advice, but may not be restricted in 
his selection.” 

22. “Group System of administering pupils’ choices of 
subjects and courses restricts elections and generally makes 
selections contingent upon the remainder of the work 
planned. ’ ’ 

23. “Curriculum System emphasizes chiefly the election 
of curriculums only.” 


9 


SCHOOL PLANT 

The school plant includes the grounds, building, and 
equipment. * 

Site and Grounds : The location of the site for a high 
school determines largely the usefulness of the school plant. 
Everything else being equal, there is no objection to locating 
the high school plant in the center of the high school popu¬ 
lation of the town. However, it is much more important 
to remove the high school plant from objectionable noises, 
dust, and unsightly surroundings, to a place where there 
will be a wholesome physical and moral environment, and 
adequate available play space than it is to locate it in the 
center of the high school population of the town or city 
if there are undesirable features connected with a central 
location. 

If possible, the high school building should be placed on 
an elevation which slopes from the building to insure satis¬ 
factory drainage. The soil on which the building is placed 
should be pervious or porous, because there is less tendency 
for ground air to rise into and permeate the school build¬ 
ing when it is placed upon this type of soil. 

The minimum size of any school grounds should be four 
acres in addition to the space on which the building itself 
is located. The National Education Association recommends 
that there be 272 square feet per child of available play 
and recreation space. This means that there should be a 
smooth, level, clear surface of 272 square feet per child on 
which pupils may play team games, unobstructed by trees, 
buildings, gulleys, rocks, and other obstacles. 

Building: The usefulness of a high school plant is de¬ 
termined largely by the location of the building on the lot. 
First, the building should not be so situated on the lot that 
it will take up an undue amount of play space. Other 
things being equal, it is a good plan to place the building 
on one corner of or on the margin of the lot, leaving the 
rest of the area for play space. Inasmuch as all class¬ 
rooms should have east and west exposure to the sunlight, 
the building should be so located with reference to the 
points of the compass that every classroom will have an 
east and west exposure, if possible. When this is done, 


Location 


Drainage 
and Soil 


Orientation 


10 


Fenestration 


Material 


Shape 


Height 


Economy of 
Floor Space 


Adaptation 
of Floor 
Space 


offices, shops, laboratories, and space that is not used through¬ 
out the day by pupils can have north and south exposure 
to the sunlight. 

Windows should be placed on one side of a classroom only. 
This should be the long axis side on the left of the pupils. 
Classroom windows should have their bottoms set three and 
one-half or four feet from the floor, and their tops should 
extend to within six inches of the ceiling. The window area 
should be equal to one-fifth the area of the floor space of 
any classroom. There should be unusually large window 
area for toilet rooms, locker rooms, and cloak rooms. 

While brick or hollow tile constitute desirable material with 
which to construct a high school building, a frame building, 
if properly planned, is acceptable. 

Simplicity and utility should determine the shape of any 
school building. The rectangular shape, T-shape, E-shape, 
and H-shape buildings are probably the most popular. 

The height of a high school building should never be more 
than two stories above ground, and there should be no base¬ 
ment space provided except for the furnace when it is 
thought best to place the furnace in the basement. There are 
many advantages in a one-story high school building. 

Not less than fifty per cent, of the total floor area of 
any building should be devoted to the purpose of instruc¬ 
tion. This means that corridors, stairs, walls, partitions, 
flues, and such like must not be allowed to consume too 
much space. 

The high school is no longer a group of independent units 
which may be satisfactorily accommodated by a building 
made up of a group of classrooms and corridors under a com¬ 
mon roof. The real high school is an institution character¬ 
ized by varied courses and activities. While the U plan of 
the Clemson Bulletin on School House Planning is a splendid 
type of building for a rural graded school, it does not meet 
the requirements of a building in which to house a high 
school. In a high school building the floor space which may 
be devoted to instruction should be so arranged and ap¬ 
portioned as to provide for all activities of the high school. 
In every high school building, there should be in proper 
proportion classrooms and such special rooms as auditorium, 


11 


laboratory, library, study hall, store room, office, teachers’ 
room or rooms, janitor’s locker room, toilet rooms, cloak 
or locker rooms, and in the larger high school, drawing 
rooms, commercial rooms, nurse’s room, and gymnasium. The 
standard classroom is supposed to seat not more than 
thirty-five pupils, and should be 24x30x12 or 27x21x12 feet. 
Laboratories are usually constructed too small. The library 
should be large enough to provide reading space for ten 
per cent, of the school at one time. The study hall should 
usually have a seating capacity of seventy pupils. 

There should be toilet rooms on each floor for both sexes. 
These rooms should be well lighted and ventilated. In South 
Carolina climate, it is probably best to heat by steam radi¬ 
ators and ventilated through the windows. The water supply 
should be pure. It should come either from the city main 
or a deep bored well. In either case, it should be fur¬ 
nished to pupils through sanitary drinking fountains. These 
fountains should be located both inside and outside of the 
building. 

Corridors should be from eleven to thirteen feet wide. 
Stairways should be sound-proof, width five feet, risers not 
more than seven inches. 

A pupil’s school environment should not only be hygienic 
and sanitary, but it should be artistic. Dignity and sim¬ 
plicity should characterize the architecture of the school 
building. The school grounds or yard should be kept clear 
of scattered rubbish, trash, and paper, and be beautified 
with trees, grass, flowers, and shrubs grouped with artistic 
effect but without interfering with pupils’ playground or 
the lighting of the building. On the inside color combina¬ 
tions should harmonize. In order to insure sufficient light 
and proper blending of colors, it is always safe to tint walls 
cream color and overhead ceiling an ivory color. On the 
walls of each classroom two or more art pictures framed 
in good taste should be hung. Window-boxes also add 
to the attractiveness of the building. Plaster casts of busts 
and mural decorations may be used to beautify halls and 
auditorium. 

•Trustees who are planning to erect a high school building 
should first contract with a reputable architect. They should 


Service 

Systems 


Corridors 
and Stair 
ways 


Aesthetic 

Features 


Building 

Procedure 


12 


give this architect the number of pupils to be accommodated, 
the number of curriculums to be offered, together with some 
idea as to how the school is to be organized, and instruct 
him to make a preliminary study and submit pencil draw¬ 
ing of his preliminary plan. This preliminary plan should 
be approved by the State Department of Education before 
it is submitted to the trustees. If the trustees and princi¬ 
pal approve of the preliminary plan, they should instruct 
the architect to give them an estimate of the cost of erect¬ 
ing a building according to this plan. If they are not 
pleased with the preliminary plan, they should instruct the 
architect to submit other preliminary plans for their rejec¬ 
tion or approval. When finally a pencil sketch has been sub¬ 
mitted that meets the approval of the trustees and the 
State Department of Education and the principal of the 
high school, and the trustees have received an estimate from 
the architect as to cost of construction, they will be in a 
position to submit a recpiest to the people for a bond issue. 
Such request will have behind it facts and not guesswork. 
While the bonds are being voted and sold,' the architect can 
prepare blue prints and specifications. This procedure saves 
time, money, and misunderstanding, and assures the trustees 
that they are spending the people’s money in the most ef¬ 
fective way. 

Equipment: The office of the high school principal should 
be equipped with a flat top desk, the drawers of which can 
be locked. In addition to this, there should be an office 
chair, three or four chairs for visitors, files for records 
and correspondence, a small cabinet with shelves in which 
books and temporary supplies may be kept, and a cabinet 
in which to hang coat, hat, umbrella and such like. This 
should constitute the minimum equipment of any high school 
principal’s office. An office thus furnished provides a place 
where the principal may hold a private conference with 
a pupil or patron or teacher. In the larger cities, there 
should be a waiting room adjacent to the principal’s pri¬ 
vate office, and other pieces of office furniture and equip¬ 
ment should be added. 


13 


The library should be equipped with book shelves, dis¬ 
play boards, magazine racks, loan desk, and readers’ tables 
for pupils. 

The auditorium should be equipped with auditorium 
chairs, a moving picture booth and machine, and the stage 
should be provided with a curtain and reading stand, to¬ 
gether with some chairs. The auditorium should also be 
provided with a piano and victrola. 

A high school classroom should be equipped with mov¬ 
able chair desks, which have drawers for books and are 
equipped with adjustable desk arms. In addition to these 
chairs, there should be a teacher’s desk and chair, and 
a lock cabinet in which the teacher may keep books, umbrella, 
and wraps. 

A laboratory should be equipped with suitable tables, cabi¬ 
nets, and apparatus, as well as stools and lecture benches. 
Opening out of the laboratories, there should be supply 
rooms. 

A teacher’s rest room should be equipped with a couch 
and comfortable chairs, and should be adjacent to toilet 

room. 

The gymnasium should be equipped with usable appara¬ 
tus. 

The store room should be provided with ample shelf space 
and available storage room. 

The janitor’s room should be provided with a table and 
with a lock cabinet in which he can keep and lock tools 
and supplies. A toilet for the janitor’s use should be 
provided. 

Toilets should be furnished with direct flush fixtures and 
stalls with doors. 

Steam radiator equipment with boiler placed in small boiler 
room built separate from main building is recommended. 
The purchase of expensive apparatus for artificial ventila¬ 
tion is discouraged. In the smaller buildings, rooms should 
be heated by jacketed stoves. 

In installing either the tank or direct pressure fountains, 
school authorities should be sure that they are sanitary in 
reality as well as in name. 


Library 


Auditorium 


Classroom 


Laborato¬ 

ries 


Teachers’ 
Rest Room 


Gymnasium 


Store Room 


Janitor’s 

Room 


Toilets 


Heat and 
Ventilation 


Drinking 

Fountains 


14 


Vacuum 

Cleaners 


References 


Except in the largest, most expensive high school build¬ 
ings, the purchase of expensive vacuum cleaning apparatus 
is discouraged. 

1. School Architecture, by Donovan and others. 

2. Score Card and Bulletin of Standards for City School 
Buildings, Bureau of Publication, Teachers’ College, Colum¬ 
bia University. 

3. Bed Book, C. F. Williams & Son, Inc., Albany, N. Y. 

4'. Catalogs of School Supplies and Furniture. 


Ventilation 


Light 


Desks 


Accessory 

Rooms 


HYGIENE AND SANITATION 

Satisfactory ventilation for a classroom provides an abun¬ 
dant supply of moving, warm, humid air, which is clear 
of dust. Under ordinary conditions, absolutely quiet air 
is extremely uncomfortable. Through regulation of the 
windows and doors the air in any classroom should be 
kept constantly moving, so as to distribute currents of fresh 
air throughout the room. The temperature of classroom air 
should be neither hot nor cold but temperate. Sixty-eight 
degrees Fahrenheit is usually accepted as standard. If the 
temperature of classroom air varies each hour from sixty 
to seventy degrees, it will probably be better than for it 
to remain at sixty-eight or seventy degrees. The humidity 
of classroom air should stand at from fifty to eighty per 
cent, of saturation. All air entering classrooms should be 
as free as possible from dirt, dust, and offensive odors. 

An abundance of natural light should enter the class¬ 
room through windows located on the left side of the pupils. 
In order to insure proper lighting, the tops of the windows 
should be extended to within six inches of the ceiling. 
Window panes should be frequently washed; mullions be¬ 
tween windows should not be more than twelve inches wide; 
and the color of the classroom walls should be cream, with 
an ivory colored ceiling. 

To insure right posture desks should be adjusted to fit 
pupils, and placed so there is proper space between desks. 

Toilet rooms, cloak rooms, and locker rooms should be 
constantly flooded with direct outside light and ventilation. 


15 


The school grounds and building should be kept clean. The 
ground should be kept free of scattered paper, apple cores, 
banana peelings, trash, and debris of all kinds. The in¬ 
terior of the building, including corridors, stairways, cloak 
rooms, laboratories, auditorium, and classrooms, should be 
swept clean daily. This sweeping should be done in the 
afternoon after the pupils leave. When the dust has had 
time to settle after sweeping, all furniture, window sills, 
chalk troughs, and the like should be dusted with dustless 
brushes or mops slightly oiled. It is a good plan to use 
some kind of a sweeping compound or a dustless brush 
for sweeping. The janitor should be supplied with every 
device for removing dirt rapidly and easily, and removing 
dust particles from the building. 

Erasers should be removed from the classroom and thor¬ 
oughly cleaned daily. After being erased with clean erasers, 
blackboards should be rubbed with damp cloths daily. 

The walls and floors of toilet rooms should be so con¬ 
structed that they can be washed down with hose at least 
once a week, oftener unless toilet rooms are unusually well 
ventilated and lighted. All toilet fixtures, including handle 
of the main door, should be washed daily with a germicidal 
preparation. If surface toilets must be used, the kind shown 
on Page 75 of “Rural School Buildings,” by R. E. Lee, 
“while not as sanitary as sewerage will, if properly con¬ 
structed and kept, minimize the danger of spreading disease 
to such an extent that it may be called a sanitary privy. 
In its construction it should be made fly proof, ventilated 
as shown in the cut, and elevated off the ground, so as to 
keep earth dry and prevent the breeding of rats.” Surface 
toilets should be cleaned and limed at least weekly. 

To insure hygienic conditions the law requiring teachers’ 
health certificates and providing medical and health ex¬ 
aminations should be enforced. Sections No. 1598 and No. 
1667 provide for school building to be kept clean and for 
the control of contagious and infectious diseases in school. 
In order to insure the execution of these laws, school 
authorities should provide for periodic inspections of health 
conditions in the school. The best way to insure thorough 
inspection in all the schools is to place this responsibility 


Cleaning 


Erasers dusted 
Outside 


Care of 
T oilets 


Enforce 
School Health 
Laws 


16 


Device for 
inspection 
of Cleaning 


Health Inspec¬ 
tion of Pupils 


References 


Paid Jani¬ 
tor 


Duties 


upon the teachers and pupils under the supervision of the 
principal. 

Have inspection blanks printed. These blanks should call 
for the following information: 

1. Condition of floor 

2. Condition of blackboards and chalk troughs 

3. Dusting of school furniture 


Approved: 


Monitor 


Teacher 

Each week the teacher can appoint a pupil monitor who 
will reach school before the other pupils each morning and 
make an inspection of sanitary conditions. The pupil writes 
out the report and signs it. The teacher checks up, and either 
0. K.’s or corrects. This enlists the interest of teachers and 
pupils, and usually insures their cooperation in keeping the 
building clean. A weekly pupil monitor should also be desig¬ 
nated to keep an hourly temperature chart on the board of 
each classroom as soon as the fires are started in the fall. 

There is no reason why classroom teachers should not be 
trained to detect, through daily inspection of their pupils 
for health conditions, such things as defective sight and 
hearing, infectious and contagious diseases, deformities, and 
malnutrition. Some such inspection should be provided for 
in every school. When the teacher suspects disease or physi¬ 
cal defect she can report to the principal, who may refer 
the case to the school or family physician. 

Healthful Schools, by Ayres, Williams, and Wood, pub¬ 
lished by Houghton-Mifflin Company. 

Dresslar’s School Hygiene, by Macmillan. 

JANITOR 

The janitor service in any school should be rendered by 
a healthy, honest, intelligent man who is paid for his full 
time to do this work. 

The janitor should receive, instruction and training from 
the principal as to what his duties are and as to how they 




17 


are to be performed. The janitor should be so thoroughly 
instructed as to the value of ventilation, light, and school 
cleanliness that he will find no excuse for negligence of his 
duties. The work of the janitor should be closely checked 
and supervised by the high school principal. It is the 
business of the janitor to keep the building and yard clean, 
and see that the school building is properly heated. It is 
also the business of the janitor to adjust school furni¬ 
ture when directed to do so, and to make such temporary 
repairs as are necessary. 

The work of pupil janitors, whether they are paid or 
volunteers, is rarely satisfactory. All school boards should 
provide funds for the employment of a regular janitor who 
is not a pupil. When this is not done, however, and the 
paid or volunteer janitor service of pupils is depended upon, 
the school board and principal should see that the work is 
not neglected. As thorough work should be demanded of 
pupil janitors as of hired professionals. A method of check¬ 
ing the janitor’s work has been suggested under the head 
of hygiene and sanitation. 

WHEN TO MAKE REPAIRS AND ORDER SUPPLIES 

All except emergency repairs should be done in summer 
vacation. Repair work should be begun immediately after 
school closes, so as to insure its completion before school 
opens. Immediately after the close of school each year, the 
principal should make an inventory showing the number and 
kind of textbooks, what accessory supplies, what apparatus, 
what maps, furniture, and janitor supplies will be needed 
for the coming session. Orders for all supplies should be 
placed not later than June 30, and should call for delivery 
at least three weeks before school opens in the fall. 

RECORDS, REPORTS, AND FORMS 

It is essential to the best interests of pupils and teachers 
of any school that permanent progressive, and, if possible, 
cumulative records of each pupil’s school career, from the 
kindergarten through the high school, be made and preserved. 
Each year the record of each school should show the fol- 


Pupil 

Janitors 


Shop Early 


Records 


1 


Record 

Sysltems 


Daily Re¬ 
cording 


18 

« *■ 

lowing facts about each pupil: Name, place, and date of 
birth; vaccinated, or not vaccinated; name of parent or 
guardian; occupation of parent or guardian; residence; 
name of school; date of admission; grade; room; teacher; 
days present; health; conduct, and scholarship. Other facts 
about the school career of a pupil are desirable. The above 
are considered essential. 

The first step in making and preserving school records 
is the selection and adoption of a record system. In Febru¬ 
ary, 1912, the committee of the National Education Associa¬ 
tion on “Uniform Records and Reports” made its report 
which was adopted. This -report provided for a comprehen¬ 
sive, adequate school record system, which is probably the 
best available today. All blanks and forms and files neces¬ 
sary to the installation of this system may be purchased 
from Shaw-Walker Company, Muskegon, Michigan. The 
C. F. Williams & Son, Inc., Albany, New York, are dis¬ 
tributors of supplies for a most excellent record system, 
which is an adaptation of and probably an improvement up¬ 
on the one recommended by the National Education Associa¬ 
tion Committee. Interested school officials can secure sam¬ 
ples of these supplies by writing to the above named compa¬ 
nies. The McGregor Company, Athens, Georgia, publishes 
special blanks approved by the State Department of Educa¬ 
tion of South Carolina, and on which individual records of 
high school pupils may be kept. This blank used in connec¬ 
tion with the register supplied by the State Department of 
Education makes a fairly satisfactory record for the smaller 
high schools which are not able to purchase the higher priced 
supplies named above. 

i 

The second step in the making and preserving of school 
records is daily recording of facts which should be recorded 
about each pupil. The purchase of supplies on which to 
keep records does not make the record unless the facts are 
recorded. The practice of “writing up” a register once a 
week, once a month, or once a year is not satisfactory. 
Daily recording of facts is essential to complete records. Ac- 
cuiacy in recording facts about pupils is essential to a true 
record. Depending upon memory for school records, and 


19 


“doctoring” figures which go to make up the record of a 
pupil and of a school injures the teachers, pupil, and the 
school. 

The third step in maintaining a satisfactory school record 
is to preserve the records which are made from year to year. 
Such records should be locked up when not in use. Files 
and cabinets should be provided for school records, and when 
possible such depositories should be fire and burglar proof. 

Annually the high school principal should make a written 
report to his immediate superior upon the condition of the 
high school of which he is principal. This report should con¬ 
tain only significant facts. It may or may not be published 
according to the discretion of the board. 

During each school year, there are sent from the State 
Department of Education at least five, sometimes six, forms 
for the high school principal to fill in and return. The in¬ 
formation requested on these forms is made necessary either 
by law or by regulations of the State Board of Education. 
Consequently, such forms should be filled out promptly } ac¬ 
curately, and legibly, and returned to the Department on 
or before the date named for return. 


Preservation 
of Records 


Annual 

Report 


Forms 


ORGANIZATION 


In its organization each public high school must meet the 
requirements of the law and the Rules and Regulations of 
the State Board of Education governing State aided high 
schools. 

The law authorizing public high schools requires: 

1. A local tax of not less than four mills for running 
expenses. 

2. The full time of as many as two teachers above the 
seventh grade. 

3. A minimum legal enrollment of twenty-five pupils 
above the seventh grade. 

For high schools meeting requirements of law and the regu¬ 
lations of the State Board of Education, the law provides 
State aid as follows: 

1. Teacher’s Salary—the full amount paid by trustees to 
lowest-salaried full-time high school teacher, up to $100.00 


Requirements 
of Law 


State Aid 


20 


Overcrowding 

Aid 


a month, if the teacher is serving her first year in the school, 
$105.00 a month for a second year, $110.00 a month for a 
third year, provided no other full-time high school teacher 
is paid less than $100.00 a month. 

2. An allowance to the district of $250.00 for the year 
to a school with three full-time high school teachers or 
$500.00 for the year to a school with four or more full-time 
high school teachers. 

3. Whenever the enrollment in the high school grades 
averages more than fifteen per full-time high school teacher, 
the State Board may pay the high school $3.00 a month 
tuition for actual attendance of high school pupils in excess 
of this average for each high school pupil enrolling from 
outside the school district, or from outside the group of 
cooperating districts as provided under Section 1812c. A 
detailed statement of such attendance will be called for in 
the spring. 

4. The salary apportionment to a centralized high school 
may be doubled in the discretion of the State Board. 

To relieve overcrowding in the elementary grades of a 
school district which supports a high school, the law guar¬ 
antees an adequate teaching corps in the elementary grades, 
provided the following requirements are met: 

!• The district must vote and be paying for current ex¬ 
penses a local tax of not less than ten mills. 

2. In the grades below the high school, the enrollment 
in any one classroom under any one teacher shall not be 
less than twenty-five or more than fifty pupils. 

3. There shall be an average monthly attendance of at 
least fifteen pupils in each elementary classroom. 

4. The authorized schedule of teachers’ salaries: In the 
elementary grades, $90.00 per month for a first grade cer¬ 
tificate, $/5.00 per month for a second grade certificate, 
$60.00 per month for a third grade certificate; in the high 
school, $100.00 per month for an assistant and $130.00 per 
month for the superintendent or principal. High school 
teachers doing their second year’s work in the same posi- 


21 


tion may be allowed an additional monthly stipend of $5.00 
or doing their third year’s work in the same position may 
be allowed $110.00 with a corresponding increase for the 
superintendent or principal. 

5. Salaries in excess of this schedule must be paid from 
a higher rate of local taxation. 

State and Federal aid may be procured for promoting 
vocational education in the high school. (See pages 135- 
149.) 

In the legislative enactment authorizing public high schools, 
this statement appears: “Provided that such high school 
meets all the requirements of this Act and the regulations 
of the State Board of Education.” * Section 1812e of the 
General School Law of South Carolina makes further pro¬ 
vision for supervision of public high schools by the State 
Board of Education. This section reads as follows: 

§ 1812e. POWERS OF STATE BOARD OF EDUCA¬ 
TION: That the State Board of Education shall have full 
authority to prescribe all such regulations as may not be 
inconsistent with this Act, and with General School Law, 
to provide for the inspection and classification of the high 
schools under this Act, to make regulations for the appor¬ 
tionment and disbursement of the State appropriation under 
this Act, and to pay out of the State appropriation the salary 
and traveling expenses of a High School Inspector. 

Under the authority given above the State Board of Educa¬ 
tion has formulated the following rules and regulations rel¬ 
ative to the organization and operation of public high schools: 

Rule 1. High schools receiving State Appropriations must 
run not less than eight months, or 160 days. 

Rule 2. High school recitation periods in all major sub¬ 
jects must be not less than forty minutes each. The State 
Board recommends forty-five minute periods except in very 
small classes. 

Rule 3. A school employing five teachers or six teachers 
shall not use any part of the time of more than two teachers 
in its high school department. 


State and 
Federal Aid 


Authority of 
State Board 


Length of 
Session 


Length of 
Recitation 
Periods 


Apportionment 
of Teachers 


* Sec. 1812a. 





22 


Provision for 

Elementary 

Grades 


Principal’s 
Teaching Time 


Minimum 

Teaching 

Periods 


Disproportion¬ 
ate Salaries 


Scaling 


Rule 4. A school employing seven or eight teachers may 
use not more than one-half the time of a third high school 
teacher in the high school department: Provided, that the 
enrollment in the high school department and the elementary 
department are in such proportion as to justify this division. 
All such schools are to be rated as two-teacher high schools 
in receiving appropriations. 

Rule 5. The elementary grades of any school must be 
adequately provided with teaching force before three or more 
teachers will be permitted in a high school receiving State 
aid. No teacher in the elementary department of any school 
receiving State high school aid may have or teach more than 
fifty pupils a day. 

Rule 6. The supervising principal of a two-teacher high 
school must devote not fewer than six periods a day to 
teaching. 

Rule 7. The supervising principal of a three-teacher high 
school must not be counted as a full-time teacher unless he 
devotes as many as four periods a day to teaching. 

Rule 8. The supervising principal of a four-teacher high 
school will not be counted as a full-time teacher unless he 
devotes as many as four periods a day to teaching. 

Rule 9. No high school teacher other than the supervis¬ 
ing principal will be counted a full-time teacher unless such 
teacher devotes as many as five periods a day to actual 
teaching. 

Rule 10. No high school will be accepted for State aid 
whose superintendent or supervising principal’s salary is un¬ 
reasonably out of proportion to the number of teachers he 
has to supervise or to the salaries of his assistants. 

Rule 11. In a two-teacher high school the amount of State 
aid shall not exceed $900.00 a year, except for tenure. 

Rule 12. To high schools of three or more teachers the 
initial appropriation will be the lowest high school salary 
up to $900.00 a year. Any additional appropriation will 
be made in accordance with the revised high school Act of 
1919. 

Rule 13. All contracts betwen district Trustees and 
teachers will be fully protected in the apportionment of 
State high school aid up to the limits fixed by the contracts 


23 


and the High School Law. In case the development of the 
high school certificate properly registered with the State 
school funds, this scaling will be made proportionately in 
the tuition allowance. 

Rule 14. After July 1, 1917, no high school will be given 
State aid when there are fewer than five pupils enrolled in 
any grade. 

Rule 15. No high school student in a State aided high 
school will be permitted to carry more than five major sub¬ 
jects at a time. Under this regulation English is counted 
one subject. Latin with grammar or prose composition is 
one subject, history with civics is one subject, arithmetic, 
algebra, and geometry are three separate subjects, and each 
division of history is a separate subject. It is recommended 
that not more than 15% of the pupils of any high school 
grade he permitted to carry as many as five major subjects at 
a time. 

Rule 16. Each high school teacher employed in a school 
receiving State high school aid must have a valid first grade 
high school certificate properly registered with the State 
Bureau of Examiners, Columbia, S. C. College diplomas are 
not certificates. 

Rule 17. After July 1, 1917, every high school teacher 
employed in a State aided high school must give evidence of 
his or her fitness to teach the subjects he or she teaches in 
that school. This fitness is to be determined by the course 
or courses pursued by the teacher in his or her preparation 
to teach, or by examination prepared and directed by the 
State Board, or by inspection of the teacher’s work to be re¬ 
ported to the State Board in writing by its representatives 
in cases where the teacher has already taught these subjects 
five years or more. 

Rule 18. State aid may be withdrawn from any high 
school after two months’ notice to the local Board for in¬ 
efficient teaching, for the continuance of an inadequate course 
of study, or for lack of attendance. 

Rule 19. Every high school receiving State aid shall ren¬ 
der with reasonable promptness such reports as are required 
by the State Board. All such reports are to be counter¬ 
signed by the Secretary of the local School Board. Any 


Minimum 

Grade 

Enrollment 


No. Subjects 
Per Pupil 


Certificates 


Teacher Qual 
ifi cation 


State Aid 
Withdrawn 


Reports 


24 


State High 
School Diplo¬ 
mas 


Transferred 

Pupils 


Diploma 
Group Re¬ 
quirements 


Internal 

Organization 


school knowingly making an incorrect report in any matter 
affecting the standing of the school or its appropriation there¬ 
by subjects itself to being penalized by the State Board. 

Rule 20. To qualify its graduates for State high school 
diplomas, the entire teaching time of three full-time high 
school teachers is required in any high school. (Experience 
proves this to be necessary.) 

Rule 21. Graduates of a new high school will be eligible 
for State high school diplomas when such high school has 
been organized and operated as a recognized or State aided 
high school four scholastic years, provided they meet other 
requirements. 

Rule 22. While it is required that candidates for State 
high school diplomas offer four thirty-six weeks’ sessions of 
approved high school work done in a satisfactory manner in 
the form of credentials, exceptions will be made in the case 
of worthy pupils who attend rural graded or other schools 
for part of their training, provided these pupils can present 
satisfactory records of full-time work done in tenth and 
eleventh grades of recognized public high schools. 

Rule 23. After June, 1923, to become eligible for a State 
high school diploma, a pupil will be. required to show satis¬ 
factory completion of subject matter grouped as follows: 


English 

4 

units 

One major 

3 

units 

One minor 

2 

units 

Another minor 

2 

units 

Free electives 

4 

units 

Total 

15 

units 


The internal organization of South Carolina High Schools 
and their relationship to the school board, the State Depart¬ 
ment of Education, and the public may be illustrated graphi¬ 
cally, as in Chart I. 

This chart gives a true picture of the organization of a 
few of the larger high schools. In a majority of cases, how¬ 
ever, the superintendent’s and principal’s functions are per- 



25 



formed by one person, and often this same person teaches 
from one to eight periods a day. In most of the schools 
there is no school physician, nnrse, attendance officer, and 
principal’s secretary. The chart represents a standard to* 
ward which all high school officials may work. 

THE SCHOOL BOARD: 

The school board is directly responsible to the people for 
the school. It is the function of the school board to select 
the superintendent or principal and hold him responsible 
for an administration of the school that will meet the needs 
of the community. The board should study the general 
educational needs of the children of the community and 
secure funds for meeting these needs. They should pass 
upon school policies. In short, the duties of the board are 
legislative; the duties of the superintendent or principal 
are administrative and executive. The superintendent or 
principal cannot be held responsible for results unless he 
is given great freedom in the selection of teachers and in 
* their assignment, and in working out ways and means where¬ 
by results may be obtained. 


Duties 


































26 


General 

Statement 


Conception 
of Duties 


Qualifications 


Balance and 
Perspective 


THE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: 

In 78% of South Carolina high schools, the high school 
principal is the school board’s executive officer, responsible 
to the board for the administration of the elementary and 
high school grades of the school district. In 22% of the 
high schools there is a principal responsible to the superin¬ 
tendent of City Schools, and in some instances the admin¬ 
istrator of the high school. Generally, however, in a school 
district which employs a superintendent of city schools and 
a high school principal, the duties of the principal are cleri¬ 
cal and instructional only. Throughout this manual the 
term, ‘ ‘ high school principal, ’ ’ refers to the person or per¬ 
sons responsible to the board, the community, and the State 
for the administration of any South Carolina high school. 

The position of high school principal has passed through 
varied steps of development. The present conception of the 
status of the high school principal is that he is teacher, 
executive of the board, and organizer. He is clerk, personnel 
officer, director of extra curricular activities, supervisor and 
curriculum builder. He is the pivotal man, responsible to 
the board and the public for the effectiveness of the high 
school, and for leadership in originating studying and put¬ 
ting into effect, with the cooperation of his teaching staff 
and the public, movements for the improvement of second¬ 
ary education in his community. 

In view of this conception and these duties, the high school 
principal should be a man possessed of good health, agree¬ 
able personality, ethical character, progressive scholarship,, 
successful teaching experience, a sound educational philos¬ 
ophy, and trained in the science of school administration. 
His leadership should be such that he can gain the coopera¬ 
tion of his teaching staff, his student body, and the public 
generally. 

When there are so many demands made upon the time of 
a high school principal, he sometimes loses his balance and 
perspective. Sometimes he devotes all of his time to duties 
that aie evident, and loses sight of important matters to 
which he should devote some time and attention. One hun¬ 
dred high school principals were requested to make an esti- 


27 


mate of how they should distribute their daily time between 
the various duties named below. A summary of their an¬ 
swers indicated that they thought they should divide their 
time between these duties as follows: 


Number Points 

Duties Devoted to Each* 

Classroom Supervision.9 

Teachers’ Conferences.6 

Pupils’ Conferences.4 

Teaching.4 

Correspondence, Records, and Reports.4 

Inspection and Adjustment.3 

Building and Yard.2 


It is not expected that any high school principal apportion 
his time in exactly this proportion. As it seems necessary 
for some principals to teach more than one hour a day, the 
time which such principals devote to supervision, pupils’ 
conferences, and teachers’ conferences will have to be re¬ 
duced. Many of the above duties can be performed after 
and before school hours. However, if high school adminis¬ 
trators will adopt some such standard as the one given 
above, it will help to keep them out of ruts and off of 
hobbies. 

For all the duties named below the high school principal 
is responsible. In the larger sj^stems lie may delegate some 
of these duties to supervisors and other assistants, but he 
cannot escape his obligation to the school board and the 
community for their being performed promptly and effec¬ 
tively. The smaller the school the more numerous are the 
duties which the principal must perform himself. Responsi¬ 
ble to the board of school trustees, the principal should be 
given general administrative and supervisory control of the 
school. Each of the administrative duties named in this 
outline will be devoted more fully where they are related 
closely to the content of the manual. 

PRINCIPAL’S ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES: 

(a) Since the principal is held responsible for the work 
done by the teachers, he should be given the privilege of 

*One point represents fifteen minutes. 


Distribution 
of High 
School 
Principal’s 
Time 


Principal's 
Obligation 
and Responsi¬ 
bility 


Selection of 
Teachers 










28 


Supplies 


Hygiene and 
Sanitation 


Janitor 


Repairs and 
Upkeep 


Records 


Correspond¬ 
ence and 
Reports 


Organization 


Textbooks 


Schedules 


nominating teachers. There should be mutual agreement 
between the principal and the board members in selecting 
members of the teaching staff. After the teachers are thus 
selected, they should be assigned to their duties by the prin¬ 
cipal. 

(b) In June of each year, the principal should make an 
inventory of the supplies on hand, and then place orders 
for all school supplies, including textbooks needed at the 
beginning of the following fall session. 

(c) The principal is responsible for the hygienic and sani¬ 
tary condition of the school grounds and building. Such 
features as heating, ventilation, lighting, schoolhouse and 
yard cleaning come under this head. 

(d) The principal should select a healthy, able-bodied 
janitor, instruct him as to his duties, and see that he per¬ 
forms them. 

(e) By frequent inspection the principal should discover 
any need of repairs on the school plant, and should have 
them made. 

(f) The principal should decide upon some adequate sys¬ 
tem of keeping records and should frequently check the 
record keeping of the teachers. 

(g) The welfare of any school depends somewhat upon 
the principal's prompt reply to all correspondence and his 
filling out accurately and promptly all report blanks sub¬ 
mitted to him by the State Department of Education. 

(h) The principal is responsible for his school’s organiza¬ 
tion, which should be made to meet the requirements of the 
law and the State Board of Education in every detail. The 
way in which a high school is organized determines to some 
extent the amount of State aid received. 

(i) In an independent district, if books other than State 
adopted textbooks are used, the principal should be able to 
defend his selection. Such selection should be determined 
by a scientific examination of prospective texts and their 
experimental use in the school. 

(j) All daily schedules should be worked out by the prin¬ 
cipal before school opening and be ready to be put into effect 
on the opening day. 


29 


(k) After a thorough canvass of the needs of the com¬ 
munity and its financial resources, the high school principal 
should recommend the number of curriculums to be offered 
and their content. 

(l) The principal should spend at least one whole period 
a week with each teacher in the capacity of supervisor. 
Observance throughout a period should be followed by a 
conference between the principal and the teacher whose work 
was observed, either at the close of the class period or at the 
close of the school day. 

(m) The principal is responsible for the improvement of 
his teaching staff in service. This can be done through read¬ 
ing circles, teachers' meetings, demonstration teaching, etc. 

(n) There should be regular monthly meetings of the 
school board. At this time the principal should report prog¬ 
ress and all routine problems should be settled. 

(o) The principal should assume and maintain direct re¬ 
sponsibility for all extra curricular activities. 

(p) By requiring written excuses for absences and tardi¬ 
ness, the principal should encourage punctuality. 

(q) There will be little disorder in a properly organized 
and properly taught high school. When disorder occurs, 
however, the principal and teachers should cooperate in 
bringing about order. While the State law permits corporal 
punishment, it should not be administered when it can be 
avoided. In some instances only the superintendent, and 
not the teachers, should administer such punishment. Some 
schools follow the policy of administering corporal punish¬ 
ment only in the presence of the principal and at least one 
teacher. 

(r) The principal is responsible for the effectiveness of 
chapel exercises. 

(s) The principal should see that frequent and well organ¬ 
ized fire drills are given. 

('t) In a nine months’ school, the principal should see to 
it that the school runs one hundred and eighty days exclud¬ 
ing holidays, and including examination days. 

(u) Where the high school principal is also responsible for 
the elementary grades, he should not permit his duties as high 
school principal to interfere with his obligation for looking 


Curriculums 


Supervision 
of Instruction 


Study Circles 


Board Meet¬ 
ings 


Social 

Problems 


Punctuality 


Keeping 

Order 


Chapel 


Fire drill / 


Length of 
School Term 


Responsibility 
for Elementa¬ 
ry Grades 


V 




30 


Finance 


Leadership 


out for the interests of the elementary grades. If the interest 
of either must be sacrificed, it had better be the high school 
than the elementary school. 

(y) The best way to finance a school system is'by use of 
the budget. Always the principal should make his recommen¬ 
dation for expenditures stay within the income of the dis¬ 
trict. • It is unwise and illegal for a school board to go into 
debt for operating expenses. 

(w) The principal should assume leadership in enlisting 
the cooperation of pupils, teachers, and the community in 
general in working for the betterment of education conditions 
in the community. 

SUGGESTIVE LIST OP MAGAZINES FOR THE 
HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL 

The high school principal should subscribe for and read 
as many of the following magazines as possible. Magazines 
marked “X” are considered indispensable. 

GENERAL : 

Price 


1. South Carolina Education, X. $1.00 

University of South Carolina, 

Columbia, S. C. 

2. School and Society, X. 5 00 

The Science Press, 

11 Liberty St., Utica, N. Y. 

3. Journal of National Education Association. 2.00 


National Education Association, 

1201 Sixteenth St., N. W., 

Washington, D. C. 

DEPARTMENTAL: 

A. Administration: 

1. School Board Journal, X. 3 Q() 

Bruce Publishing Company 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

2. Educational Administration and Supervision.... 3.00 

Warwick and York, Inc. 

10 East Center St., Baltimore, Md. 






31 




B. Secondary Education: 

1. The School Review, X.. 2.50 

A Journal of Secondary Education 
The University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 

2. High School Quarterly. 1.00 

University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 


SUGGESTIVE LIST OF BOOKS FOR THE HIGH 

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL 

The high school principal should own and read the follow¬ 
ing books. The ones marked “X” are considered indis¬ 
pensable : 

X Healthful Schools—How to Build, Equip, and Main¬ 
tain Them, by Ayres, Williams, and Wood, published by 
Houghton-Mifflin Company. 

X Health Work in Schools, by Hoag and Terman, pub¬ 
lished by Hougliton-Mifflin Company. 

Principles of Secondary Education, by Inglis, published 
by Houghton-Mifflin Company. 

X Junior-Senior High School Administration, by Johnson- 
Newlon-Pickell, published by Scribner’s. 

X The Educational Red Book, published by C. F. ^Wil¬ 
liams and Son, Inc., Albany, N. Y. 

X Reports of the Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education, published by Government Printing 
Office, Washington. 

How to Measure, by AVilson and Hoke, published by Mac¬ 
millan Company. 

Methods of Teaching in High Schools, by Parker, pub¬ 
lished by Ginn and Company. 

X Supervision of Instruction, by Nutt, published by 
Houghton-Mifflin Company. 

Public Education in the United States, by Cubberly, pub¬ 
lished by Houghton-Mifflin Company. 

Psychology of High School Subjects, by Judd, published 
by Ginn and Company. 

Principles of Teaching and Secondary Education, b}^ Fos¬ 
ter, published by Scribner’s. 

The School as a Social Institution, by Robbins, published 
by Allyn and Bacon. 




Qualifica¬ 
tions of 
Teachers 


Maintain 

Order 


Teach 


Physical 
Condition 
of Room 


Hall Duty 
Play ground 


Social Principles of Education, by Betts, published by 
Scribner’s. 

The Socialized Recitation, by Robbins, published by Allyn 
and Bacon. 

TEACHERS: 

A high school teacher should be a person possessed of a 
good moral character, a healthy body, agreeable personality, 
and an education equivalent to graduation from a college 
requiring the completion of a four-year course of study, 
or one hundred-twenty semester hours in advance of a stand¬ 
ard four-year high school course. The last two years of this 
college training should be devoted to, specialization in the 
subject which the teacher teaches. In addition to her high 
school and college training, a high school teacher should have 
a minimum professional training of twelve semester hours in 
education which includes the pedagogy of the subject which 
the teacher teaches. 

DUTIES TEACHERS SHOULD PERFORM: 

(a) Maintain order in such manner and to such an extent 
as to make conditions in room not only conducive to study, 
but to the development of the initiative, and the moral and 
social sense of pupils. 

(b) Plan and present work in such manner as to develop 
in each pupil the knowledge, interests, habits, ideals, and 
powers whereby he may find his place, and use it for the 
good of society. 

(c) See that light, heat, and ventilation in her room are 
adjusted from time to time, so as to produce wholesome hy¬ 
gienic conditions. She should supervise posture of pupils 
and see that school furniture is regulated to fit their needs. 
She should keep her own desk, cabinet, books, and papers 
neatly and systematically. She and pupils should cooperate 
with janitoi in keeping floors, blackboards, and school prem¬ 
ises clear of scraps of paper, trash, dust, and dirt. 

(d) Do hall duty as requested. 

(®) 1 ecess the teacher should be out-of-doors with pu¬ 

pils directing their play. 


33 


(f) Visit the parents of each of her pupils at least once 
each school year. 

(g) Assist with extra curricular activities such as literary 
societies, athletics, and the like. 

(h) Unless done by a central secretary, keep records, reg¬ 
isters, reports daily and accurately. 

PUPILS: 

The school plant and organization exist in order that the 
pupil and teacher may meet under circumstances favorable 
to realizing the aim and seven objectives of secondary edu¬ 
cation. Pupils should never lose sight of the fact that the 
high school should be a cooperative institution, and that the 
high school will contribute to the pupil’s development in 
proportion to the effort that the pupil makes to develop him¬ 
self. The pupil who shows by his attitude and conduct an 
unwillingness to become a good citizen of the high school 
community should, after a fair trial, be excluded from the 
high school. 

THE SCHOOL COUNCIL: 

The school council is made up of the principal, represent¬ 
ative high school pupils, and high school teachers. Since 
one of the objectives of secondary education is citizenship, 
the citizenship ideals which pupils get from the subject con¬ 
tent which they are taught in high school should be made to 
function daily through the organization of the school council. 
The best way to learn to be a good citizen is to practice the 
art of citizenship. School council does not mean self gov¬ 
ernment. The responsibility of principal and teachers to 
control the activities of the school cannot be safely delegated. 
Under the direction of principal and teachers, the school 
council gives pupils an opportunity to participate in the 
management of some of the affairs of the high school. This 
develops in the pupils capacity for self-direction. In organ¬ 
izing a school council, the principal and teachers should make 
their own organization and in such a manner as to respect 
the personality of their own school. In its beginning the 
activities of the school council should be limited to only one 
or two features of the school life such as one assembly pro¬ 
gram a week, or the establishing of a standard of school cour- 


Visit 

Parents 


Extra Activ¬ 
ities 


Keep Records 


Purpose 


Not Self- 
government 


Small Be¬ 
ginning 


34 




Need 


Economy of 


General 

Principles 


Budget 


tesy. Dr. Dewey says: “School is not preparation for 
life; it is life.” Adolescent boys and girls want not only to 
be taught how to live; they want to live. The properly 
conducted school council provides for wholesome school life. 


PRINCIPAL’S SECRETARY: 

In the larger high schools it requires all of the time of 
one person to do the routine and clerical work of the school. 
Since the place of the principal is in the classroom and the 
life of the community to formulate and direct school move- 
# ments, it is poor economy to tie him down to clerical and rou¬ 
tine duties that can be performed by a person of less train¬ 
ing and at a lower salary. Hence, in the largest high 
schools, a full-time clerk or secretary should be employed; 
in the larger high schools, a part-time secretary should be 
employed. 


THE JANITOR: 

For importance, qualifications and duties of janitor, see 
Page 16. 


SCHOOL FINANCE 

The fundamental problem of school administration is school 
finance. The administration of public education cannot be 
made a money saving process. The field of school finance 
involves not only the “income and outgo” relation, but also 
the further relation of children to be educated. It is the 
function of the school board to provide adequate funds, and 
to so supervise their expenditure that each dollar will buy 
a hundred cents’ worth of effective educational advantages 
for the children of their district. 

Before the beginning of each fiscal year, a school budget 
should be prepared by the principal or superintendent under 
the supervision of the school board and approved by the 
board. 

The budget should provide for the following items of 
expense: 

1. Office of Superintendent 

2. Supervisors’ salaries 

3. Principal’s salary 

4. Teachers’ salaries 




-35 


5. Supplies for instruction 

6. Rent and insurance 

7. Fuel 

8. Janitor’s supplies and janitor hire 

9. Repair of buildings and upkeep of grounds 

10. Repairs and replacement of equipment 

11. Library expenses 

12. Promotion of health 

13. Transportation 

14. Outlay 

The budget should show an itemized conservative estimate 
of receipts. Sources of school income are: 

1. Balance 

2. Poll tax 

3. Three-mill constitutional tax 

4. Dog tax 

5. Special tax for current expenses 

6. Special tax for bonds 

7. State appropriation 

8. Other sources 

A good budget is one that provides properly for every 
child and shows no deficit at close of school year. 

When the budget is approved by the board, it should be 
published in local newspapers or newspaper. At the end 
of each school year the school board should publish a finan¬ 
cial statement which would enable every citizen to trace 
school funds to their ultimate expenditure. 

While the law requires a district supporting a high school 
to levy only a four-mill tax for maintenance, practice shows 
that 95% of the districts supporting high schools levy a 
special tax of ten mills or more. Since a study of the school 
finance of thirty South Carolina districts shows that these 
districts are spending an average of $86.00 per year per 
high school pupil for high school maintenance, and since 
the total State and Federal aid apportioned to all districts 
supporting high schools amounts to only 9% of the total 
cost of the maintenance of the school systems of these dis¬ 
tricts, it costs a local community annually about $79.00 per 
pupil, on the average, to support a high school. 


Good Budget 
Defined 


Publicity 


Special 
High School 
Levies 


36 


General 

Statement 


Activities 

Named 


Cooperative 

Activities 


Library 


In addition to this, the district must make provision for 
its elementary grades. To provide fairly for elementary 
and high school instruction requires a special levy for cur¬ 
rent expense locally of at least fifteen mills. 

EXTRA CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 

Boys and girls of high school age are most interested in 
social activities which give expression to their natural de¬ 
sires and which they have had some share in initiating. If 
this tendency is utilized and directed through extra classroom 
activities, it will aid greatly in developing the knowledge, 
interests, ideals, habits, and powers whereby pupils may 
find and use their places for their own good and the good of 
society. 

The number and nature of extra classroom activities will 
be determined by the size of the high school. It would seem 
practicable for all high schools to make use of such extra 
classroom activities as the assembly period, # Literary Soci¬ 
ety, school play, recess team games, and athletics. Other 
extra-class room activities are publications, school clubs, such 
as dramatics, etc.; school council, and class plays; etc. 

The above named activities should be planned and ad¬ 
ministered through the cooperative efforts of the principal, 
teachers and pupils. The principal of active pupil participa¬ 
tion should be dominant. All such activities of pupils, 
however, should be approved and supervised by teachers. 
The high school principal should never allow extra class room 
activities to become influenced or controlled by persons out¬ 
side of the high school organization: as for instance, the 
domination of the high school athletics by professionals or 
“ringers” in the town or city. 

LIBRARY 

The high school should develop in pupils the reading 
habit. The library is the laboratory of the History and 

Once a week some class or group of high school pupils may be 
made responsible for the entertainment and edification of the whole 
high school assembled in the school auditorium for a full forty or 
forty-five minute period. The program rendered should always be 

approved in advance by the principal and directed by one or more 
teachers. 





37 


English departments of the high school. A high school 
without a library is an educational deformity. 

The library room should be a well lighted, well ventilated, 
neat, and attractive room, centrally located and accessible. 
A favorable location for the library is adjoining the study 
hall. If the library is thus located and a glass partition 
placed between the two rooms, pupils will be accessible to the 
library during study periods, and the library can be ob¬ 
served by the teacher in charge of the study hall. Even the 
small high school should have a library, and if in such school 
there is no separate room provided for library use, books 
may be kept in one of the class rooms or in the study hall. 

In the largest high schools there should be a full-time li¬ 
brarian. In the smaller high schools a competent teacher 
should be responsible for the library, and in the larger high 
schools, there should be a teacher-librarian, a person giving 
part-time to teaching and part-time to library service. Any 
teacher in charge of a high school library should have had 
at least one summer of training in the administration and 
use of a high school library. 

A high school library should have in it at least four well 
selected volumes per high school pupil enrolled and useful 
reference books, one or more encyclopedias, and one or more 
unabridged dictionaries. 

There should be available in the high school library one or 
more daily papers, and current magazines. 

The library floor space available for use as reading room 
should accommodate at any one time about ten per cent, of 
the high school pupils in the building. 

The library should be furnished with chairs and reading 
tables large enough to accommodate six pupils at a time. 

Chapter 13 of the United States Bulletin on the Reorgani¬ 
zation of English in secondary schools contains valuable in¬ 
formation upon the administration and use of the high 
school library. There is a chapter on The High School Li¬ 
brary in “Junior-Senior High School Administration,” and 
also a chapter on the “Socializing Influence of the High 
School Library” in “The Modern High School,” both of 
which are published by Scribner’s. United States Bulletin, 
1913, No. 35, entitled “A List of Books Suited to a High 


Library 

Room 

t 


Librarian 


Number 
of Books 


Periodicals 


Floor Space 


Furniture 


Library 

Bibliography 


One of many 
Duties 


Importance 


Duties of 
Supervisor 


Cooperative 


38 

% 

School Library/’ should be of use in selecting books for 
a high school library. The New England School Library As¬ 
sociation has published some very fine book lists for high 
school libraries. These may be secured thru the secretary 
Miss Edith K. Coulman, High School, Quincy, Massachusetts. 

SUPERVISION OF CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 
On page 27 of this manual the duties of the high school 
principal or administrator are named. One of the duties 
named is that of classroom supervision. On page 27 under 
distribution of principal’s time, it is indicated that the high 
school principal should devote more time to classroom super¬ 
vision than to any other duty. 

While clerical, disciplinary, extra-curricular, inspectorial, 
community leadership, and other administrative duties are 
important and must be performed, the duty of working with 
the classroom teachers to improve the quality of their in¬ 
struction, in other words, the duty of supervision, is funda¬ 
mental and therefore cannot be evaded or neglected if the 
school is to do its most effective work. “The supervisor 
must carry out eight distinctive pieces of work. He must lay 
the basis for effective cooperative teaching; select and organ¬ 
ize the subject-matter of courses of study; teach for pur¬ 
poses of demonstration and experimentation; direct systema¬ 
tic observation; direct the teaching activities of his teachers; 
check up the progress made by the pupils; measure the effi¬ 
ciency and progress of his teachers; and measure the effi¬ 
ciency of his own supervising performances. The perform¬ 
ance of these various pieces of work demands thoro training 
pointed specifically to these distinct activities.”* 

The above outline of supervisory duties is given so that the 
high school principal will not confuse such duties as “check¬ 
ing records,” “giving permissions,” “helping to keep order,” 
“administering discipline,” “promoting extra classroom 
activities,” and “visiting of classrooms to determine tem¬ 
perature, adjustment of shades, order and schedule adjust¬ 
ments ’ ’ with the duties of supervision. 

the supeivisory function of a principal is a cooperative 
function. lo succeed m it there must be complete coopera- 
*Page 32, The Supervision of Instruction, By Nutt. 


39 


tion between supervisor and teaching staff. Supervision 
must be constructive, not destructive. The supervisor must 
assume the attitude of a helper. Not only must he assume 
the helping attitude, he must be able because of training 
and experience to give help. In addition to being master of 
the subject matter of his particular subject, the supervisor 
should be thoroly trained in the fundamental principles of 
teaching and supervision. 

Unless the principal can be sure of this cooperative basis 
and of his ability to make his supervision really helpful, he 
wastes his time and dissipates his energy when he under¬ 
takes supervision. When, however, he has established a 
spirit of cooperation between himself and staff, and when 
he is satisfied that he is in possession of the fundamental 
principles of teaching and supervision he should begin his 
program of supervision. 

The principal and teachers together under leadership of 
the principal may begin their supervisory program by work¬ 
ing out objectives for each course by determining general 
underlying principles of method and procedure for each 
course. 

Second, arrange for teachers’ meetings for study and dis¬ 
cussion of professional books, magazines, journals, and funda¬ 
mental problems of education. 

Third, observe teachers’ classroom instruction throughout 
whole class period or periods, and follow with constructive 
criticism that may be usable, definite, applicable, and helpful. 

Fourth, use standard tests to determine progress of pupils. 

Fifth, use score cards for rating teachers. Let principal 
and teacher discuss and compare rating made by principal 
and made by teacher herself. 

Sixth, let both principal and teacher teach demonstration 
lessons from time to time. Demonstration lessons should be 
followed by free discussion. 

Seventh, lessons plans, outlines, and standards may be 
worked out thru cooperative efforts of principal and teachers. 

The principal who devotes most of his time to teaching 
will not be able to devote as much time to classroom obser¬ 
vation as he should do. However, he will be able to do most 
of the things suggested more or less thoroly if he is really 


Training 


Poor 

Supervision 
Wastes Time 


Objectives 
and Methods 


Teachers ' 1 

Meetings 


Class Room 
Observation 


Standard 

Tests 

Score Cards 


Demonstra¬ 
tion Lessons 


Lesson Plans 


The teaching 

Principal 

and 

Supervision 


40 


Double and 
Single Daily 
Sessions 


Types of 
Periods 


interested in improving the quality of instruction in the 
school. He may concentrate upon one activity at a time for 
one or two months. Every principal should own and read 
Nutt's Supervision of Instruction, published by Houghton* 
Mifflin. 

DAILY SESSION AND SCHEDULE OP CLASSES 

The schedule of classes in a high school is determined by 
the length of the daily school session, what time is given 
for recess, and whether or not a luncheon hour is allowed. 
When a luncheon hour is allowed, the school is said to fol¬ 
low the double daily session plan. When no luncheon 
hour is allowed the school is said to follow the single daily 
session plan. Thirty-two per cent, of the high schools of the 
State follow the double daily session plan; sixty-eight per 
cent, follow the single session plan. High schools which fol¬ 
low the single session plan usually open at 9:00 o’clock, 
run until two, have two fifteen-minute recess periods, 
and devote six periods to recitations and study. High 
schools which follow the double daily session plan usually 
open at 8 :45, run until 3 :45, allow ten minutes for opening 
exercises, give a fifteen-minute recess in the afternoon, give 
an hour for luncheon, devote eight forty-minute periods to 
recitations and study and allow two and a half minutes be¬ 
tween periods for pupils to pass from one room to another. 

There are three kinds or types of periods: 

(a) The forty- or forty-five-minute period, all of which 
is devoted to recitation, is the most common. 

(b) The sixty-minute period, all of which is usually de¬ 
voted to recitation, but fifteen or twenty minutes of which 
is sometimes devoted to study, is unusual. 

(c) The eighty- or ninety-minute period, sometimes called 
the study-recitation period, the first half of which is devoted 
to study of the lesson which is recited in the second half 
of the period is very unusual. The study-recitation period 
may be converted into a laboratory period which meets re¬ 
quirements of credit unit rating. The ninety-minute periods 
also meet requirements of Smith-Hughes law. 

If the high school principal knows how to organize the 
high school curriculum and courses and activities, and to 


41 

make out his schedule of classes in such a way as to use 
time of pupils to best advantage, there is great advantage 
in the double daily session over the single daily session, 
provided the teachers and community cooperate in putting 
this plan into effect. The double session provides more 
time for supervised study, laboratory and shop work, library 
work, applied arts, and extra-class room activities. 

The schedule of classes should be made out and posted 
before school opens, lessons assigned on the first day, and 
regular recitations begun on the second day after school 
opens. Recitations should close promptly at the end of the 
period, which should be signaled by bells or bell. Pupils 
rather than teachers should change rooms if a change is to 
be made. There are two reasons for this. Teachers should 
accumulate in their classrooms illustrative teaching material, 
which characterizes their subjects and which cannot be moved 
from room to room. The two minutes of walking and change 
relaxes pupils, and is physically beneficial to them. 


Administer¬ 
ing Schedules 


Probably the three-teacher high school which is attempting to offer Smith-Hughes Agriculture offers as many 
problems in making a schedule of classes as any other type of high school. To show that by combining some 


42 


cd 


o 

o 

43 
d 
m 

rd 

d 

d 

m 

f-i 

o 

Xfl 

d 

m 

m 

cd 

i —i 

d 

o 

d 

f—H 

d 

HO 

d 
r d 
d 
m 

cd 

d 

44 

cd 

8 


o 


w 

m 

o 

ft 

co .. 
OQ 

+2 £ 
,rH o 

#s r■ H 

CO r—I 

?H O 

cd «H 

d 

^ cd 

£ 

CO ° 

~d rO 
d d 

•r-5 M 

rQ ^ 

d o 

CO £ 
d 

a g 

O S 

CO ^ 

&X) J/J 

d cd 


cd 

d 

?h 

d 


d 


d 
HO 

-4 d 

cd 43 


HO 

d 

cd 


CO 

d 

co 

co 

cd 


o 

CO 

d 

d 

a 


d 
d 

ft 
d co 


n3 

o 

• pH 

o> 

ft 

13 

c 

CM 


'S 

• pH 

fi 

<v 

ft 


cfl 


4 th Period 

11 : 15 - 12:00 

13 

O 

rH 

•- 

•• 

03 

rH 

ft 

PH 

1 


© 

13 

CO 

u 

© 

CO 

»-H 


13 

O 

• r-( 

<u 

ft 

43 

4-J 

co 


13 

O 

• pH 

<u 

ft 

43 

4-> 

1 © 


43 

o 

C 

3 

ft 


13 

IQ 

rH 

CO 

T3 

q 

43 

O 

• H 

> 

• pH 

Id 

*-» 

03 

ft 

• • 

CO 

© 

CO 

•s 

• 

03 

ft 

S 

43 

4-> 

CO 
• • 

N 
• rH 

u 

ft 

4-> 

C 

cd 

03 

rC 

4H 

00 


o 

CO 
• • 

<M 

i 

HP 


»o 

Hp 


o 

o 


o 

o 


o 

o 
• • 

CM 


o 

CO 


© 


»© 

© 

i 

© 

© 
• • 

© 


w 

03 

43 

03 

cd 

03 

H 


03 

J-t 

3 

"s 

03 

• pH 

(h 

bO 

<3 


© 


43 

03 

a 

a 

ft 


a <» 

03 t>» 
rh O 

3 « 

© 03 
03 

a 

03 

pp *H 

43 o 


03 

3 

3 

03 

• pH 

>-c 

bO 

< 


CO 


bC 

a 

ft 


►/g 
3 -2 

ft 03 

^ft 


bO 

a 

ft 

43 

4-> 

© 


43 
43 W 

4-j a 

© 03 

rH >h 

ft 


bO 

a 

ft 

43 

-M 

CO 


43 

03 

a 

ft 


-a 

03 

a 

5 


o 

P-H 

O 

• pH 

43 S 

©o 

43 

CO 


bo 

o 

03 

O 


43 

4-i 

cd 

s 

43 

4-> 

© 


cd 

S 

43 

4-> 

© 


43 
43 « 

4-> a 

i-4 03 
rH ?r 

ft 


>» 

o 


^3 

ce 

43 ri 

s ffi 


bO 

a 

ft 

43 

H-> 

05 


bC 

© 

be 

bO 

bo 

C 

• pH 

w 
• • 

05 

1 

S 3 

• pH 

13 

•pH 

c 

a 

C 

C 

S 3 

03 

© 

03 

03 

03 

ft 

30 

ft 

ft 

ft 

O 

00 

o 

o 

O 




PQ 

c/5 

co 


o 

CO 

CO 


r» 

rd 

CO 

• rH 
r—H 

bC 

d 

Pft 


CQ 

4H> 

• rH 

d 

d 

bo 

d 

• rH 

£ 

o 

o 

d 

rd 


m 

u 

d 

5d 

o 

rd 

o 

• rH 

rd 

£ 


d 

© 


d 

© 


cd 

d 

i 

u 

d 

o 

«44 

© 

Oh 

O 

«44 

CO 

d 

nd 

• rH 

> 

o 

?4 

ft 

m 
d 
c n 
co 
cd 

r—H 

d 

=4-4 

O 

d 

"d 

d 

rd 

d 

co 

C/2 

• rH 

rd 

H 


Mathematics, 3 ; Science, 3; History, 2; Agriculture, 2 ; French, 2. This schedule of classes provides for a com¬ 
bination of 10 th and 11th History classes and 8 th and 9 th sciences according to sex. Next school year Miss B 
will teach general science to 8 th and 9th girls, and Mr. A will teach biology to 8 th and 9th boys. When the 
community is able to add a Home Economics teacher, she can teach Home Economics to girls at the same time 
Agriculture is being taught to boys. 































































43 


LIST OF STATE ADOPTED HIGH SCHOOL TEXT- 

/ 

BOOKS FOB THE PERIOD, JULY 1, 1922, TO 

JUNE 30, 1927 

These texts are classified according to subjects. 
ENGLISH: 

Ward’s Sentence and Theme 
Punctuation Leaves for same 
Teacher’s Manual for same 
Theme Building—Ward 

Lewis & Hosic’s Practical English for High Schools 
Miller’s English Literature 
Pace’s American Literature with Readings 
Setzler’s Introduction to Advanced English Syntax 
Dalgleish’s Grammatical Analysis 
Woolley’s Handbook of English Composition 
Riverside Literature Series: 

The Sketch Book 
Lady of the Lake 
Julius Caesar 
Treasure Island 
Robinson Crusoe 
Enoch Arden 

Macaulev’s Lays of Ancient Rome 
David Copperfield 
Southern Poets 
Ivanhoe 
Kenilworth 
As You Like It 
Pied Piper 
Tale of Two Cities 
Macbeth 
Silas Marner 
Idylls of the King 
Vision of Sir Launfal 
Henry Esmond 
Macaulay’s Life of Johnson 
Literature, not Riverside Series 

Short Stories for English Courses 
Queed 

The Gentleman from Indiana 


44 


HISTORY OR CIVICS: 

Basal: 

West’s Ancient World 

West’s Modern World (With Supplement) 

West’s War and the New Age (Free) 

Stevenson’s American History 
Wallace’s Civil Government of United States 
(Combined and revised) 

Optional: 

West’s Short History of Early Peoples 
Hughes’ Community Civics 

Meyers, Mediaeval and Modern History (Revised) 
Magruder’s American Government 

MATHEMATICS: 

Basal: 

Stone-Millis High School Arithmetic 
Wells’ Algebra for Secondary Schools, (Complete) 
Wells’ Algebra for Secondary Schools, Part I 
Wells’ Algebra for Secondary Schools, Part II 
Wells’ Plane Geometry 
Optional: 

Sykes-Comstock Beginner’s Algebra 
Sykes-Comstock Plane Geometry 
Sykes-Comstock Solid Geometry 

SCIENCE: 

Basal: 

Caldwell & Eikenberry’s General Science (Revised) 
and Manual 

Smallwood, Revelly & Bailey’s Practical Biology 
(Revised) and Manual 

Cook’s Practical Chemistry for High'Schools 
Black & Davis—Practical Physics (Revised) 

Optional: 

Black & Conant’s Chemistry 

Black—Laboratory Experiments in Chemistry, to 
accompany Black & Conant 
Hunter’s Civic Science in the Home 


45 


Hunter’s Civic Science in the Community 
Weed’s Chemistry in the Home 
Chamberlain’s Physical, Economic, Regional 
Geography (Recommended) 

LATIN: 

Smith’s Elemental Latin 

Bennett’s Latin Grammar 

Bennett’s New Latin Composition, Part I 

Bennett’s Caesar 

Bennett’s Cicero 

Bennett’s Virgil 

FRENCH: 

Basal Grammar: 

Chardenal’s Complete Course 
Optional Grammar: 

Gourio’s La Classe en Francais 
Readers: 

Guerber’s Contes et Legendes, Books One and Two 
Talbot’s La France Nouvelle 
L’Abbe Constantin, by Halevy 
Labiche & Martin’s Le Voyage de Monsieur Perri- 
chon. 

t 

SPANISH: 

Hill & Ford’s Spanish Grammar (New Edition) 
Elementary Spanish—American Reader 

GERMAN: 

Joynes’ Wesselhoeft’s Grammar 
Joynes’ German Reader 

COMMERCIAL: 

Bexell & Nichols’ Principles of Bookkeeping and 
Farm Accounts (With Blanks) 

Rittenhouse’s Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping 
(With Blanks, Forms, and Vouchers) 
Stenography—Gregg (Recommended) 

HOME ECONOMICS: 

Greer’s School and Home Cooking 


46 


Free Elective 
Plan 


Group Plan 


Curriculum 

Plan 


AGRICULTURE: 

Productive Farm Crops, Montgomery (Recom¬ 
mended) 

Animal Husbandry for Schools, Harper (Recom¬ 
mended) 

Horticulture for High Schools, Davis (Recom¬ 
mended) 

CURRICULUM SUGGESTIONS 

PLANS OF ADMINISTERING PUPILS’ CHOICES: 

School men who have followed and studied the free elec¬ 
tive plan of administering pupils’ choices have discovered 
that this plan provides faulty organization. Pupils too often 
take only one year in subjects that are not required. There 
is a tendency among pupils to choose easy subjects. In 
short, there is too much diversity and not enough sequence. 

The group of high school principals who have experimented 
with the “group system” of administering choices of pupils 
say that this plan affords too much sequence and not enough 
diversity. It is difficult to administer the group plan on 
account of arranging schedules for the pupils who fail in 
one subject. It causes pupils to overspecialize. These men 
believe that the high school is not the place for specialization. 

A majority of those who have made a thorough study of 
the problem of pupils’ choices of subject courses say that 
the “curriculum plan” is the best plan of administering 
pupils’ choices, because it provides diversity and sequence in 
proper proportion, makes constant requirements easier to 
administer, and makes sure that the needs of differentiated 
groups will be met. 

An analysis of the high school population of various com¬ 
munities by those who have done advanced curriculum think¬ 
ing shows that in almost every community there are in the 
high schools at least three considerable groups, the needs 
of whom should be met by the program of studies. These 
are the group that will enter college, the group that will 
enter a vocation, and the group which does not know that 


47 


it will enter college, and at the same time does not desire 
to choose and train for a vocation while in high school. 

The needs of these three groups can be met by organizing 

a college preparatory curriculum, vocational curriculums, 
and a general curriculum. 

One can arrive at what subjects should be required in 
the college preparatory curriculum of South Carolina high 
schools through a study of college entrance requirements of 
South Carolina colleges. 

The uniform published catalog requirements of a majority 
of colleges are as follows: 

English 3 units 

Latin 3 units 

Modern Languages 2 units 

History 2 units 

Mathematics 2 y 2 and 3 units 

Science 1 and 2 units 

It would not seem practicable and wise in planning a 
high school college preparatory curriculum to cater to the 
whims of one or two colleges in their extreme (as compared 
with the requirements of other colleges) requirements in 
two or three subjects. For this reason the following college 
preparatory curriculum is recommended. 


8th Grade 

9th Grade 

10th Grade 

11th Grade 

English 

English 

English 

English 

Algebra 

Algebra thru 

Modern 

Plane 


Progessions 

History 

Geometry 

Gen. Science 

1 Biology 

Latin 

U. S. History 
French 

Latin 

Latin 

French 



A pupil who has satisfactorily completed this curriculum 
will be reasonably independent. Beginning in the fall of 
1923, such pupil may enter any college in the State as a 
candidate for A. B. degree with two exceptions. If she 
wants to go to Converse or Chicora, she will have to make 
up one unit in Latin before entering. 


Kinds of 
Curriculums 


College En¬ 
trance Re¬ 
quirements 


College 

Preparatory 

Curriculum 











48 


The following general curriculum is suggested: 


8th Grade 

9th Grade 

10th Grade 11th Grade 

English 

Arithmetic 

Four-year (1st semester) 

Curriculum Algebra 

(2nd semester) 
Gen. Science 
Com’ty Civics 
(1st semester) 
Anc. History 
(Shorter) 
(2nd semester) 

English 
Algebra thru 
quadratics 
Biology 
Geography 

English 
Modern 
History 
Chemistry X 
Plane 

Geometry X 
French X 
German X 
Spanish X 

English 

U. S. History 
& Gov’t. 
Physics* 
Algebra* 
French* 
German* 
Spanish* 


Elect two marked “X.” 

Elect two marked 

A pupil taking this curriculum and electing mathematics 


in the tenth and eleventh grades may enter the freshman 
class of any of the State institutions, Clemson, Citadel, Uni¬ 
versity, or Winthrop. 

The following vocational* curriculum is suggested: 


8th Grade 

9th Grade 

10th Grade 

11th Grade 

English 

Arithmetic 

Four-year (1st semester) 

Vocational Algebra 

Curriculum (2nd semester) 

Gen. Science 
Vocational 
Subject 

English 
Algebra thru 
quadratics 

Biology 

Vocational 

Subject 

English 

Modern 

History 

English 

U. S. History 
& Gov’t. 

Select two 
Chemistry 

Plane 

Geometry 

Modern 

Language 

Geography 

Vocational 

Subject 

Select two 
Physics 
Algebra 
Modern 
Language 
Vocational 
Subject 


constants The constants in these three suggestive four-year high 


school curriculums are: 

English 4 units History 2 units 

Mathematics 2 units Science 2 units 

The attention of high school principals is again called to 
the group requirements of pupils who will receive State 
high school diplomas in the spring of 1924, and thereafter. 
These are: 

English 4 units 

One major 3 units 

Two minors 2 units each 

The remaining four units may be distributed as the pupil 
desires. 

*Vocational subjects are: Agriculture, Home Economics, Trade 
Training, Teacher Training, Commercial Training, etc. Either two or 
four years may be devoted to vocational subjects, depending upon 
teaching stalf and enrollment. 































49 


THREE-YEAR CURRICULUMS 
In the three-year high schools where it is thought desir¬ 
able not to require Latin of all pupils, a general curriculum 
with a choice between Latin and Science may be offered. If 
there is an enrollment of not more than forty pupils in a 
three-year high school, it is possible for two high school 
teachers to offer the general curriculum with a choice be¬ 
tween the Latin and Science. However, this arrangement 
requires seven teaching periods of one and six (seven if 
double periods are devoted to Science) of the other high 
school teacher. This is probably more work than the average 
high school teacher can make preparation for daily. To 
offer the general and vocational curriculums in a three-year 
high school, three full-time teachers will be needed if only 
one vocational subject is offered. 

Suggestive three-year curriculums follow: 

GENERAL CURRICULUM WITH CHOICE BETWEEN 

LATIN AND SCIENCE: 


8th Grade 

9th Grade 

10th Grade 

English 

English 

English 

Com’ty Civics 

Modern 

U. S. History 

(1st semester) 

History 

& Gov’t. 

Anc. History 

Algebra 

Plane 

2nd semester) 

Latin, or Civic 

Geometry 

Arithmetic 

Science in the 

Latin or 

1st semester 

Community 

Geography 

Algebra 



(2nd semester) 



Latin, or Civic 



Science in Home 

i 



VOCATIONAL CURRICULUM: 


8th Grade 

9th Grade 

10th Grade 

English 

English 

English 

Arithmetic 

Modern 

U. S. History 

(1st semester) 

History 

& Gov’t. 

Algebra 

Algebra 

Plane 

(2nd semester) 

Agriculture or 

Geometry 

Gen. Science or 

Home Economics 

Biology or 

Civic Science in 

or both 

Geography 

the Home 



Agriculture or 


. 

Home Economics 



or both 




Three-year 

General 

Curriculums 


Three-year 

Vocational 

Curriculums 



















50 


Only Four 
Subjects 
Per Pupil 


How Deter¬ 
mine 

Curriculums 


Provide for 
Majority 


i 


Number of 
Teachers and 
Curriculums 


In a three-year or four-year high school, pupils should 
be permitted to carry only four major subjects at 'a time. 
In any high school grade, the 15% of the pupils who made 
the highest scholarship marks in their preceding year’s work 
may be permitted to carry five major subjects, provided 
they desire to do this and provided they maintain a general 
average of about 90% on the five subjects being carried. 

The scientific method of approaching the problem of de¬ 
veloping curriculums in a high school is through a survey of 
the abilities and inclinations of pupils, needs of the commu¬ 
nity in which the high school is located, the number of pupils 
to be served by the high school, and the financial ability and 
inclination of the people of the district to provide building 
and equipment accommodations and teaching staff. 

When a curriculum is added an expense is added. When 
a community is willing to meet the expense of providing all 
of the curriculums indicated by the needs of all of the pupils 
who constitute the high school population of the district, 
it is usually where there is a large high school enrollment 
and a large property assessment. When, however, the tax¬ 
payers are unwilling, on account of low valuation or small 
enrollment, to meet the expense of offering comprehensive 
curriculums, the board and principal must determine which 
curriculums will be omitted and which will be offered. Un¬ 
der these conditions, the determining factor should be the 
needs of the greatest number of children. For example, if 
only one curriculum may be offered and the needs of, say 
fifty-five pupils, call for one curriculum, and the needs of 
forty-five pupils call for another, the curriculum which fits 
the needs of the fifty-five should be offered. 

It should be remembered that additional curriculums call 
for additional teachers. .A four-year high school which has 
no grade with an enrollment of over thirty-five pupils may 
offer the college preparatory and general curriculums with 
not less than four full-time high school teachers. In a 
high school wheie none of the grades are large enough to 
lequiie division into sections, each vocational curriculum 
offered, in addition to the college preparatory and general 
curriculums, will lequire the full time of one vocational high 
school teacher. 


51 


SUGGESTIONS AS TO COURSES 

The following pages contain suggestions as to the quan¬ 
tity, kind or quality, and organization of the subject matter 
which constitutes credit unit and one-half credit unit courses 
in South Carolina high schools. 

The quality of high school instruction should be of the 
highest order. Mere lesson hearing may be done by any 
teacher. Real instruction can be given only by the teacher 
who knows her subject matter, who is thoroughly trained in 
the principles of teaching, who has had properly directed 
experience, and who is willing to devote her best efforts to 
teaching. High school instruction should be made to realize 
the aims of the socialized recitation. It should provide 
in their proper proportions such types of instruction as 
the drill lesson economically executed; the lesson to add new 
knowledge through oral and book instruction, through illus¬ 
tration and demonstration, and especially through the stim¬ 
ulation of thought; and, finally, it should provide lessons 
and standard tests to test the knowledge of pupils. Since 
the question is such an important factor in instruction, all 
questions should be carefully thought out so as to be most 
effective. This calls for daily lesson plans which set up aims 
and objectives for the teaching of each lesson and which 
provide questions and methods for realizing these aims and 
objectives. It is doubtful if a teacher is justified in making 
an assignment unless she can measure it as a means of real¬ 
izing the aim and one or more of the objectives named on 
page one of this manual. Finally, any scheme of instruction 
which fails to provide for supervised study is of doubtful 
value. 

In this manual there is not space to give to an adequate 
treatment of method of instruction in each course, but fol¬ 
lowing each group of related courses there are given the 
names of books and magazines which it is believed will be of 
help to teachers of those courses. Here are given some gen¬ 
eral references with which all high school teachers should 
be familiar. Those marked “X” are considered indispensa¬ 
ble. 


General 

Statement 


Instruction 


General Ref¬ 
erences for 
Teachers 


# 


52 


Daily Teach¬ 
ing Periods 


Pupils per 
Teacher 


Subject 

Rooms 


An introduction to High School Teaching, by Colvin, 
published by Macmillan Book Company. X 
The Socialized Recitation, by Robbins, published by 
Allyn and Bacon. X 

Psychology of High School Subjects, by Judd, pub¬ 
lished by Ginn and Company. X 
Methods of Teaching in High School, by Parker, pub¬ 
lished by Ginn and Company. 

The School as a Social Institution, by Robbins, pub¬ 
lished by Allyn and Bacon. 

Principles of Teaching in Secondary Education, by 
Foster, published by Scribner’s. 

Bulletin, 1918, No. 35, Superintendent of Public Docu¬ 
ments. X 

ADMINISTRATION OF INSTRUCTION 

The number of daily teaching periods which a teacher 
is required to fill will of course affect the quality of instruc¬ 
tion which she gives. A majority of the teachers of the 
State devote six periods a day to instruction. When a com¬ 
munity is able to afford a large enough teaching staff to 
require only five recitations per day of each high school 
teacher, the quality of instruction will probably be improved. 

It is generally agreed that about twenty-five pupils in 
a subject class is the number that can be instructed most 
effectively by a teacher. However, it is customary to per¬ 
mit one teacher to instruct a maximum of thirty-five pupils 
in a subject class in some of the best high schools. When 
a teacher attempts to instruct more than thirty-five pupils 
in a subject class, she does herself and her pupils an in¬ 
justice. Some rating agencies do not accredit high schools 
which permit English teachers to be responsible for the in¬ 
struction of more than one hundred pupils. Generally, it is 
recommended that an English teacher be not responsible for 
the instruction of more than eighty pupils, because teachers 
of this subject should read widely and should correct many 
themes from each pupil taught. 

The atmosphere or coloring of a room should characterize 
the subject taught in it. Illustrative teaching materials in 
the form of books, pictures, charts, maps, post cards, etc., 


53 


should be collected by every teacher and kept available in her 
classroom. Much of such material can be secured free in 
the form of advertising matter from business institutions. 
Much can be purchased from school supply houses. In order 
that teachers may make the environment of their classrooms 
conducive to interest in their respective subjects, pupils 
instead of teachers should change from room to room. This 
change also gives the pupils an opportunity to relax and 
rest for two or three minutes between periods. 

Teachers of different subjects should practice cooperation 
in bringing about common desirable ends. For example, 
the teacher of every subject should cooperate with the Eng¬ 
lish teacher in securing the best possible oral English from 
all pupils. 

Practice seems to indicate division of the school year into 
two semesters rather than three terms. There are a num¬ 
ber of advantages in this practice. Division of the year into 
two semesters makes half unit courses easier to administer. 
It also lessens the number of general examinations from 
three to two. 

Much time can be wasted in connection with examinations. 
Three times a year some schools devote one week to review 
for examinations and one week to the examination itself. 
Some schools which divide the school year into two semes¬ 
ters devote three days twice a year to examinations which 
are not preceded by reviews. Principals of these schools 
say that the time for systematic review is from day to day 
throughout the school year. Another group of schools fol¬ 
low the plan of giving a monthly written lesson on each 
subject. These written lessons are reviews of the preceding 
month’s work, cover salient points of instruction, are given 
one each week, and the pupils do not know on which day these 
quizzes will come. These written lessons usually count as 
one-third in making up the monthly mark. Some high 
schools require no other examinations than these; others 
excuse pupils, who under this plan have made a general av¬ 
erage of 85% or more for the half year, from the semester 
examinations to which two and a half days are devoted at 
the end of each semester. Of these three plans of adminis- 


* 


Cooperation 
between Teach- 
era 


Two 

Semesters 


Examinations 


54 


Rating in 
Credit Units 


tering examinations in practice the last one seems to produce 
the best results, and the first one* the most unsatisfactory re¬ 
sults. Would it be a good plan to give a standard test to 
all pupils in each subject instead of the regular examina¬ 
tion at the end of each semester? Some schools follow this 
plan. An important feature of any test or examination 
is to return to each pupil his paper with mistakes indicated 
in writing. 

Ratings : 

To enable any high school principal to rate in credit units 
the work done in his school, the following facts are given: 

What constitutes a credit unit in each subject is deter¬ 
mined by the National Conference Committee on Standards 
of colleges and secondary schools. 

Following is a statement which will enable any South Car¬ 
olina high school principal to rate the work done in his own 
school. Rating of work done in a high school in credit units 
is based upon three things. 

1. Quality of work (determined by inspection). 

2. Time devoted to subject (determined by reports). 

3. Number of pages covered (determined by reports). 

The quality of work done is to be thorough. 

The amount of time devoted to earning credit units in 
various subjects may be stated as follows: 

A four-year secondary school curriculum should be re¬ 
garded as representing not more than sixteen units of work. 

A unit is defined as a quarter of a year’s work in high 
school. 

Four major subjects make up a full year’s work for all 
except pupils of exceptionally strong native ability. 

Recitation periods of not less than forty minutes a day, 
five days a week, for thirty-six weeks are required to earn a 
credit unit in any subject. To earn a credit unit in a labo¬ 
ratory science, two weekly eighty-minute periods devoted to 
laboratory work in an adequately equipped laboratory are 
required in addition to three weekly forty-minute recita¬ 
tion periods devoted to the same science. Five sixty-minute 
periods a week devoted to instruction in a science satisfy 
rating requirements for a unit. To earn a credit unit in 


55 


agriculture, double periods and approved equipment are re¬ 
quired. One-half unit may be given for an approved agri¬ 
cultural project. To earn a credit unit in home economics, 
double periods and approved equipment are required. To 
earn a credit unit in manual training or arts, double periods 
and approved equipment are required. To earn credit unit 
in stenography, typewriting is required. 

The number of pages or quantity of work required for 
each credit unit is as follows: 

ENGLISH: 


Grammar (high school text 

complete). 

Composition and Literature 
HISTORY: 

Ancient (full course) . . 

Ancient (short course) . . 

Community Civics (half year 
Modern History . . . 

American History and Govern 
ment or Civics . . . 

MATHEMATICS: 

Arithmetic. 

Algebra to quadratics . . 

Algebra through quadratics 
Algebra through progressions and 
binomial theorem . . 


LATIN: 


Plane Geometry. 

. 1 

unit 

Solid Geometry. 

1/2 unit 

Beginners’ or First Year . . 

. 1 

unit 

Caesar, 4 books. 

. 1 

unit 

Cicero, 6 orations. 

. 1 

unit 

Virgil, 6 books. 

A.TORY SCIENCES: 

. 1 

unit 

General Science. 

. 1 

unit 

Biology. 

. 1 

unit 

Chemistry. 

. 1 

unit 

Physics. 

. 1 

unit 


1 unit 
3 units * 

1 unit 
% unit 
% unit 
1 unit 

1 unit 

% unit 

1 unit 
'V /2 units 

2 units 


“Composition two or three times a week for four years and Liter¬ 
ature two or three times a week for four years gives four credit units, 
provided a minimum of four prescribed classics a year is completed 
and three adopted texts in composition and grammar are completed. 












56 


Physiology (High School) . . . 

% unit 

Physical or High School 



Geography. 

1 

unit 

MODERN LANGUAGE :t 



French. 

1 

to 2 units 

Spanish. 

1 

to 2 units 

German. 

1 

to 2 units 

VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS: 



Agriculture. 

1 

to 4 units 

Bookkeeping . 

1 

unit 

Home Economics. 

1 

to 4 units 

Manual Training. 

1 

to 2 units 

Stenography and Typewriting . 

1 

to 3 units 


English : 

With the probable exception of the Science teacher, the 
English teacher needs more special training for her work 
than other high school teachers. No English teacher can 
do satisfactory work if she is responsible for the instruction 
of more than one hundred pupils in English. The best the¬ 
ory and practice in high school English work throughout 
the whole country is given in the Reorganization of English 
in Secondary Schools, a bulletin published by the United 
States Department of the Interior. Extracts* from the 
Bulletin are adapted to conditions in South Carolina and 
are given in the following pages, which are devoted to a 
discussion of English Composition and Literature: 

I. In general, the immediate aim of high school English 
is two-fold: 

(a) To give the pupils command of the art of communi¬ 
cation in speech and in writing. 

(b) To teach them to read thoughtfully and with appre¬ 
ciation, to form in them a taste for good reading, and to 
teach them how to find books that are worth while. 


♦With changes in arrangement, with some omissions and comments, 
about twenty of the following pages are a reprint from Reorganiza¬ 
tion of English in Secondary Schools. 

f Credit depends upon the time devoted to the subject and the quan¬ 
tity of work accomplished. 








57 


These two aims are fundamental; they must be kept in 
mind in planning the whole course and applied in the teach¬ 
ing of. every year. 

II. Expression in speech includes: 

(a) Ability to answer clearly, briefly, and exactly a ques¬ 
tion on which one has the necessary information. 

(b) Ability to collect and organize material for oral dis¬ 
course on subjects of common interest. 

(c) Ability to present with dignity and effectiveness to 
a class, club, or other group material already organized. 

(d) Ability to join in an informal discussion, contribut¬ 
ing one’s share of information or opinion, without wander¬ 
ing from the point and without discourtesy to others. 

(e) For those who have, or hope to develop, qualities of 
leadership ability, after. suitable prepartion and practice, 
to address an audience or conduct a public meeting with 
proper dignity and formality, but without stiffness or em¬ 
barrassment. 

(f) Ability to read aloud in such a way as to convey to 
the hearers the writer’s thought and spirit and to interest 
them in the matter presented. 

Note: All expression in speech demands distinct and 
natural articulation, correct pronunciation, the exercise of 
a sense for correct and idiomatic speech, and the use of an 
agreeable and well-managed voice. The speaker should be 
animated by a sincere desire to stir up some interest, idea, 
or feeling in his hearers. 

III. Expression in writing includes: 

(a) Ability to write a courteous letter according to the 
forms in general use and of the degree of formality or in¬ 
formality appropriate to the ocasion. 

(b) Ability to compose on the first draft a clear and read¬ 
able paragraph, or series of paragraphs, on familiar sub¬ 
ject matter, with due observance of unity and order and 
with some specific detail. 

(c) Ability to analyze and present in outline form the 
gist of a lecture or piece of literature and to write an ex¬ 
pansion of such an outline. 


General 
Aims of 
English 
Course 


English 

General 

Aims 


58 


English 

General 

Aims 




(d) Ability, with due time for study and preparation, to 
plan and work out a clear, well-ordered, and interesting re¬ 
port of some length upon one’s special interests—literary, 
scientific, commercial, or what not. 

(e) For those who have literary tastes or ambitions, abil¬ 
ity to write a short story, or other bit of imaginative com¬ 
position, with some vigor and personality of style and in 
proper form to be submitted for publication, and to ar¬ 
range suitable stories in form for dramatic presentation. 

Note: All expression in writing demands correctness as 
to formal details, namely, a legible and firm handwriting, 
correct spelling, correctness in grammar and idiom, and 
observance of the ordinary rules for capitals and marks of 
punctuation; the writer should make an effort to gain an 
enlarged vocabulary, a concise and vigorous style, and firm¬ 
ness and flexibility in constructing sentences and paragraphs. 
IV. Knowledge of books and power to read them thought¬ 
fully and with appreciation includes: 

(a) Ability to find pleasure in reading books by the better 
authors, both standard and contemporary, with an increas¬ 
ing knowledge of such books and increasing ability to dis¬ 
tinguish what is really good from what is trivial and weak. 

(b) Knowledge of a few of the greatest authors, their 
lives, their chief works, and the reasons for their importance 
in their own age and in ours. 

(c) Understanding of the leading features in structure 
and style of the main literary types, such as novels, dramas, 
essays, lyric poems. 

(d) Skill in the following three kinds of reading and 
knowledge of when to use each. 

(1) Cursory reading, to cover a great deal of ground, 
getting quickly at essentials. 

(2) Careful reading, to master the books, with exact un¬ 
derstanding of its meaning and implications. 

(3) Consultation, to trace quickly and accurately a par¬ 
ticular fact by means of indexes, guides, and reference 
books. 

(e) The habit of weighing, line by line, passages of es¬ 
pecial significance, while reading other parts of the book 
but once. 


i 


59 


(f) The power to enter imaginatively into the thought of 
an author, interpreting his meaning in the light of one’s 
own experience, and to show, perhaps by selecting passages 
and reading them aloud, that the book is a source of intel¬ 
lectual enjoyment. 

Note: All book work should be done with a clear under¬ 
standing on the student’s part as to what method of read¬ 
ing he is to use and which of the purposes mentioned above 
is the immediate one. To form a taste for good reading 
it is desirable that a considerable part of the pupil’s out¬ 
side reading be under direction. To this end, lists of rec¬ 
ommended books should be provided for each grade or term. 
These lists should be of considerable length and variety to 
suit individual tastes and degrees of maturity. 

V. The kinds of skill enumerated above are taught for three 
fundamental reasons: 

(a) Cultural. To open /to the pupil new and higher 
forms of pleasure. 

(b) Vocational. To fit the student for the highest suc¬ 
cess in his chosen calling. 

(c) Social and Ethical. To present to the student noble 
ideals, aid in the formation of his character and make him 
more efficient and actively interested in his relations with 
and service to others in the community and in the Nation. 

Note: These fundamental aims should be implicit in the 
teacher’s attitude and in the spirit of the class work, but 
should not be explicitly set forth as should the immediate 
aim of each class exercise. 

About as much time should be devoted to composition as 
to literature in high school courses. For the sake of clear¬ 
ness composition is treated separately from literature. 

Composition : 

1. Training in composition is of equal importance with 
the study of literature and should have an equal allow¬ 
ance of time. Composition work should find place in every 
year of the school course. 

2. Subjects for compositions should be drawn chiefly 
from the pupil’s life and experience. To base theme work 


Qeneral 

Statement 


Point of 
View 


60 


The Chief 
Problems 


mainly upon the literature studied leads pupils to think 
of composition as a purely academic exercise, bearing little 
relation to life. 

3. Oral work should be conducted in intimate relation 
with written work, and ordinarily the best results will fol¬ 
low when both are taught by the same teacher. 

4. Theory and practice should go hand in hand. The 
principles of grammar and rhetoric should be taught at the 
same time and to the extent that they are aids to expression. 

5. If examinations are given, they should be so framed 
as to be a test'of power rather than of mere memory. 

The general aims of oral and written composition have 
been set forth above and need not be repeated. In the 
eighth and ninth grades appears the first opportunity for 
systematizing such knowledge of the principles of expres¬ 
sion as will help the pupil consciously to increase his ability. 
While the practical value of grammar and rhetoric is much 
less than was formerly supposed, it does not follow that 
they should be entirely ignored. The essential parts should 
be selected upon a basis of tested experience and should 
be taught in connection with expression in situations as real 
as may be. 

The topics in grammar and rhetoric suggested for the 
several grades have been chosen in the light of experience 
and investigation and not because of mere custom or the 
desire for logical completeness. The study of these topics 
will be most fruitful if they are regarded as standing for 
specific habits to be formed; for results to be tested ulti¬ 
mately as practice rather than as theory. It is not supposed 
that precisely these topics in precisely this order will be 
handled everywhere, nor that the emphasis upon each of 
them will be everywhere the same. Definite progress in the 
several abilities represented should, however, be planned for 
in every school. 

Chief among the abilities to be cultivated may be enum¬ 
erated the following: 

1. Accuracy of observation and vividness of imagina¬ 
tion. 

2. Clear and logical thinking, 

3. A sense for order and completeness. 




61 


4. Adaptation of subject matter to a particular audience. 

5. The sentence sense. 

6. The accurate use of an adequate vocabulary. 

7. Observance of standard usage in matters of external 
form. 

The chief problem in elementary composition is to direct 
pupils in the choice of subjects of real value and interest 
and the defining toward each of a particular point of view. 
This is peculiarly difficult because of the wide range of indi¬ 
vidual differences in the pupils of the high school. For 
this reason suggestions as to possible themes have been made 
somewhat liberally. Teachers should take ample time in 
assigning topics and in stimulating each pupil to think his 
topic over carefully and perhaps make notes upon it. 

The reaction against English grammar arose from the 
knowledge that the formal work in the subject that was be¬ 
ing done was of small practical value. A further influence 
resulted from investigations tending to show that grammar 
provides little mental discipline of a general character. The 
movement in favor of simplifying the school course and 
concentrating on essentials did the rest. There is need at 
the present time of careful discrimination, lest the pendu¬ 
lum be allowed to swing too far. 

A sane attitude towards the teaching of grammar would 
seem to be to find out what parts and aspects of the subject 
have actual value to children in enabling them to improve 
their speaking, writing, and reading, to teach these parts 
according to modern scientific methods, and to ignore any 
and all portions of the conventional school grammar that 
fall outside these categories. In general, the grammar 
worth teaching is the grammar of use—function in the sen¬ 
tence—and the grammar to be passed over is the grammar 
of classification—pigeonholing by definition. The distinc¬ 
tion is similar to the contrast of modern biology with the 
earlier science of families, species, etc. Language, it is well 
known, is learned mainly by imitation, largely unconscious, 
and children constantly use in their speech hundreds of 
expressions, many of them highly idiomatic, which only the 
linguistic scholar, familiar with the history of the language, 


Grammar 


62 


Punctuation 


Spelling 


can explain. Children should be set to examining only 
those grammatical forms and constructions whose use they 
can plainly see, and they should pursue such examination 
with the conscious purpose of learning how to make better 
sentences. Any other aim is mere pedantry. If it be con¬ 
tended tha't English grammar should be taught for the sake 
of the study of foreign language, the answer is that the 
policy just defined will provide all the* foundation that for¬ 
eign language teachers have a right to demand and much 
more than they will actually get through highly formal 
and technical studies. The topics in grammar included in 
this report have been carefully sifted and will be found to 
accord with recent investigations. 

Punctuation, so far as it obeys the rules of grammar, 
should be taught as a part of the study of the grammatical 
structure of the sentence. The outline of topics in grammar 
provides automatically for certain topics in punctuation. 
Matters of punctuation that are purely or primarily rhet¬ 
orical should be sparingly touched upon in the eighth and 
ninth grades for the reason that the pupils are not yet ca¬ 
pable of fine distinctions and may easily form the habit of 
over-punctuating, which is worse than not punctuating at all. 
Let the pupils realize that marks of punctuation are intended 
to help the reader’s eyes to prevent his running expressions 
together that should be noticed separately, and you have 
laid the foundation for an intelligent use of them. The 
written work of the pupils will provide the matter for prac¬ 
tice. 

Regular work in spelling is necessary in the high school. 
Drill should be centered upon the words that investigation 
shows are frequently misspelled by the pupils of these years. 
The lists should be made up of the class list, gathered by 
the teacher from the written work, and the grade list, sug¬ 
gested by the work of Ayres and others. Classes in the com¬ 
mercial group will require a special and more extensive drill 
than other classes because of the test to which they are 
likely soon to be put. Subject spelling should be carried 
on in history and other classes so as to prevent the mis¬ 
spelling of proper nouns and technical terms. In addition 
to all this each pupil should keep in a note book lists of 


63 


the words with which he had special difficulty and he should 
be required to master them. 

Much of the recitation in spelling should be devoted to 
presenting the new words. Not more than three or four 
distinctly new and different words should be taken up in 
a single class period. These should be spoken, written, di¬ 
vided into syllables, used in context, and compared with 
similar and dissimilar words as to form, meaning, and use. 
Special attention should be called to the part of each word 
which is likely to be misspelled. The word should be re¬ 
viewed several times at lengthening intervals—one day, two 
days, etc. By dint of such treatment pupils may be taught 
to spell correctly all the words they wish to use and should 
be required to do it. The study of word structure and der¬ 
ivation, valuable in other ways, will support the work in 
spelling and should be systematically carried on. 

Grade VIII : 

1. To give broader interests and better knowledge of 
environment. 

2. To increase the pupil’s powers of observation, organi¬ 
zation, and expression. 

3. To further develop the sentence sense. 

4. To enlarge the vocabulary. 

5. To teach the conventional form of the business letter 
and of the social letter. 

6. To eliminate errors in the spelling of common words. 

7. To give a knowledge of certain principles of grammar. 

8. To secure greater flexibility and variety of sentence 
structure. 

9. To teach the general principles of paragraphing. 

Desirable high school composition material is: 

1. Themes, based largely upon personal experience and 
observation. 

(a) Stories of vacations, recreations, and outings. In 
these, set before the pupils the aim to interest their class¬ 
mates. When the themes are read aloud, ask if any unin¬ 
teresting and unnecessary details are included. This will 
curb the common practice of beginning with: “Got up and 
ate my breakfast,” etc. 


Composition 
Aims, 8th 
Grade 


64 


Composition 

Material 


Composition 

Material 


(b) Simple work in' explanation of local and civic mat¬ 
ters. This may take the form of written answers to ques¬ 
tions such as, How are our streets repaired? Who fixes our 
tax rate, and for what are the proceeds spent? Of what use 
are our parks, and who has charge of them? How are po¬ 
licemen selected and appointed? 

(c) Descriptive themes dealing with imaginary journeys. 
Each pupil plans a trip to a foreign country. With an 
atlas he makes out his itinerary. In books of travel or such 
volumes as the Stoddard lectures he reads of the principal 
cities and what is to be seen, and week by week writes suc¬ 
cessive chapters of his journey, illustrating his work with 
pictures clipped from railway and steamship folders or old 
magazines. 

(d) Themes on characters, in life or in books, whom the 
pupil admires. This leads naturally to themes on what pu¬ 
pils would like to do or to be; or this may be brought in as 
the concluding paragraph of an autobiography. 

(e) Descriptions of interesting work in other classes, es¬ 
pecially in the departments of manual training, household 
arts, and science. 

(f) Frequent practice in letter writing. The form of the 
business letter should be taught. In teaching the social 
letter it has been found an incentive to have the pupils cor¬ 
respond with those of a similar grade in another city. The 
first letter is planned as a class exercise, the form, the sta¬ 
tionery, the superscription all being carefully considered. 
Later letters may be written with little supervision. The 
desire of the pupil to do well will be an incentive for careful 
work, and the practice in composition may be quite as val¬ 
uable as if done under the teacher’s eye. Pupils receiving 
particularly good letters may give them to the teacher 
to read to the class, and report the teacher’s comment to the 
writer. 

(g) Reports, chiefly oral, upon books read outside of 
class, the aim of the one giving the report being to interest 
other pupils in the book. For this purpose, it is best not to 
allow the whole story to be told. 


65 


(h) Imaginary conversation between characters in books. 
This may lead to dramatizing scenes or chapters, and to act¬ 
ing them before the class or school. 

(i) Simple exercises in argument, the topics usually grow¬ 
ing out of school life, the aim being to teach the pupils to 
keep the question, and to treat their opponents courteously. 

(j) Much drill in practical exposition, pupils telling how 
to do things, how to find things, how to go to various places, 
how various contrivances work. Much of this should be oral, 
or at least read before the class, and tested by the question, 
Has the writer made it clear to one who did not know. 

(k) Accounts of visits to points of interest, trips thru a 
factory, visits to museums, etc. If this is a class exercise 
it should be preceded by a talk telling the pupils what they 
are to observe particularly. Sometimes the teacher may an¬ 
nounce that the best composition on this topic will be pub¬ 
lished in the school paper. 

2. The following topics in grammar should be taught: 

(a) The sentence as simple, complex, or compound; prin¬ 
cipal and subordinate clauses; connectives of subordinate 
clauses; types of conjunctions connecting independent 
clauses in compound sentences; elliptical sentences. 

(b) The parts of speech; classes, forms, and uses of pro¬ 
nouns; the idea of person, number, and voice of verbs de¬ 
veloped (paradigms of indicative mood built up by way of 
illustration) ; subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, 
interjections. 

Following are some method suggestions: 

1. The general principle to be kept in mind is that of 
unity of aim and variety in exercises tending to accomplish 
this aim. The objects of the course as stated under (a) 
should be kept constantly in mind. 

2. Motives for composition work should be sought in the 
life of the school and of the community. A letter written to 
a pupil who is kept at home by sickness, and who wants to 
know what is going on at school; an address in favor of a 
candidate for school office; a debate on a question of local 
interest which is being discussed in the newspaper—such 
topics help to vitalize the work. 


Grammar 

Materia! 


/ 


Composition 

Method 


66 

3. Oral discussions and the framing of a brief outline 
should be constructive and should point out merits as well 
as faults. In pupil criticism it is particularly necessary 
to require this. 

4. Composition work should be localized. The pupil 
should write with a definite audience in mind, and as far 
as possible, his work should be presented to the class. Class 
criticism should in a large measure take the place of teacher 
criticism. If the purpose in writing is made clear in the 
assignment, and if the general aims are kept before the 
members of the class, they can criticize a theme very suc¬ 
cessfully, and the reaction upon the writer is more marked 
than when the criticism comes from the teacher. 

5. Blackboard work should be a prominent feature. These 
exercises should be brief enough to allow many to be written 
and criticised within the recitation period. The use of 
colored chalk to indicate mistakes is effective. 

6. To secure variety and flexibility in sentence structure 
there should be abundant drill in sentence manipulation. 
This, as experience shows, is not only effective but interest¬ 
ing, since it introduces an element of challenge or contest. 
This exercise may have various forms, such as: 

(a) Combining a number of brief statements into a single 
sentence. 

(b) Changing compound sentences into simple or complex 
ones. 

(c) Reshaping awkward sentences, especially such as con¬ 
tain unnecessary repetition. 

(d) Punctuating many sentences, or repunctuating faulty 
sentences. This is effective in showing the relationship of 
part to part and supplements the grammar study, giving it 
practical application. 

• / 

7. As the pupil is now beginning to write longer themes, 
it becomes important to emphasize somewhat the paragraph 
as a unit of discourse. This may be done in various ways, as: 

(a) Analyzing parts of the books and magazines read, 
to show that good writers observe the principles of para¬ 
graph unity. 

(b) Planning themes in class and requiring that each 
main topic be developed as a paragraph. 


67 


(c) Requiring pupils occasionally to exchange themes and 
test paragraph unity by trying to write the topic of each 
paragraph in the other’s theme. 

(d) Assigning topic sentences and requiring pupils to 
develop them into paragraphs. 

8. The stud}^ of spelling should be continued as outlined. 

9. Necessary punctuation should be taught. 

Grade IX: 

1. To arouse an intelligent interest in the structure of 
the whole composition and the coherence of its parts. 

2. To broaden the pupil’s knowledge of grammar, with 
emphasis upon the forms of the verb. 

3. To make the misspelling of common words an un¬ 
common occurrence. 

Desirable ninth grade composition material is: 

1. Themes of various types, some of them continuing the 
work explained in Grade VIII. Other projects are: 

(a) Themes dealing with various occupations. Each pupil 
chooses a calling about which he can obtain first-hand infor¬ 
mation. In a class a general outline is made, covering such 
points as: How to enter this occupation; the work done by 
those engaged in it; what qualities are necessary for success; 
advantages and disadvantages of this calling. If a number 
of these themes are read before the class it will start the 
pupils to thinking vocationally. 

(b) In descriptive writing occasionally select subjects that 
allow of appeal to several senses, and then judge the themes 
by the fullness of the sense appeal. For example, the 
contents of a lunch basket may be described in such a way 
as to make the reader see, feel, and perhaps smell each 
article, until he fairly grows hungry. 

(c) An incident in a book may be rewritten as if it were 
an actual occurrence which the pupil is to report for a 
newspaper, giving the article suitable headlines. 

(d) Letters may be supposed to pass between characters 
in books. For this it is best to select books with which the 
class is familiar so that the pupils can judge how well the 
writer has caught the spirit of the character. 

(e) Reports, chiefly oral, on current events, based upon 
newspaper reading. This affords an opportunity of teach- 


Method 


I 

Aims of 
Composition, 
9th Grade 


Material 


68 





Material 


Composition 

Method 


Composition 

Aims, 

10th Grade 


Aims 


Material 


ing pupils to discriminate between important and unimport¬ 
ant news. Good cartoons may also be brought into class and 
made the subject of discussion. 

2. The grammar work for this grade is as follows: 

(a) The sentence: Word order; agreement; variations 
by condensation of clauses or expansion of verbals and of 
phrases; essential and nonessential clauses. 

(b) The parts of speech; various uses of nouns; substi¬ 
tutes for nouns; modes of the verb (indicative, imperative, 
and subjunctive); verb phases; parts of troublesome verbs; 
building paradigms; uses of infinitives and participles; words 
used now as one part of speech, now as another; expletives. 

Most of the points of method given under Grade VIII 
apply here as well. To these may be added: 

1. Certain elementary principles of rhetoric, such as 
sentence and paragraph unity, which have been taught pre¬ 
viously, should be applied rigidly in criticism. In addition 
the planning of a longer composition should be taught both 
by the analysis of good examples and by practice in making 
outlines. The general principle of coherence should be taught, 
as applying to the sentence within a paragraph and to the 
paragraphs that make up the whole composition. 

2. Work in spelling should be so emphasized as to make ' 
pupils feel that it is absolutely inexcusable to misspell the 
words they habitually use. 

Grade X: 

The aims in tenth grade work are: 

1. In general, clearer and more logical thinking; more 
correct, more clear and forcible expression. 

2. Particular emphasis should fall on the sentence and 
on the elaboration of the paragraph. 

3. Pupils should learn how to handle typical problems 
of business correspondence near to ordinary experience; 
telegrams. 

4. Pupils should also have the opportunity of forming 
right habits in the use of the newspaper. 

5. Advance in punctuation. 

Tenth grade composition material: 

1. For paragraph writing: Subjects familiar to the 
pupil which lend themselves to treatment by contrast, by 


69 


comparison, by example, by details, etc. Questions of civic 
interest and those concerning vocations are suitable material; 
also work in the shops or laboratories, and topics taken from 
other subjects in the curriculum. 

2. 1 hemes based on literature, provided the exercises are 
of vital interest to the pupil and do not lead to literary 
criticisms and questions of technique. Problems of human 
conduct suggested by reading the classics furnish excellent 
material. For example, (a) Should Jean Val Jean have re¬ 
vealed his identity? (b) Why Brutus failed, (c) Can the 
boy of today plan his life as Franklin did? (d) Gareth’s 
ideals and the modern boy. (e) The development of the 
character of Silas Marner. 

3. For dramatization; conversation in real life revealing 
character; arguments carried on by conversation concern¬ 
ing familiar subjects; chapters from books that lend them¬ 
selves easily to the dramatic form. 

4. Incidents written up as news stories-; brief editorials 
on matters of student opinion; advertisements, particularly 
if they can be put to use. 

5. Class discussions of topics of current interest. 

6. Spelling of words needed in themes; word building 
for increase of vocabulary. 

1. Pupils should be taught how to organize material by 
the use of notes and outlines. Analysis of good paragraphs 
by contemporaries will help. 

2. Pupils should also be taught how to test a paragraph 
as to its unity and point of view by summarizing it in a 
single sentence. This and the preceding suggestion apply 
particularly to explanation, expression of opinion, and his¬ 
torical narrative. 

3. Study sentences by examining them in typical para¬ 
graphs. Let the class see how a paragraph is divided into 
sentences—how the sentences succeed each other and are 
related to each other. 

4. Assist to greater ease in handling sentences by much 
sentence manipulation. Let the class condense, combine, trans¬ 
pose, expand, divide sentences of various types; make sure 
that they recognize grammatical relationships. 


Method 


70 


Method 


Composition 

Aims 

Uth Grade 


Material 


i 


5. Show how clearness may be obtained by the use of 
connectives; by correct placing of modifiers; by unmistakable 
reference of pronouns; by correct sequences of tenses; by 
avoiding dangling participles; by omitting unnecessary 
words; by punctuation. 

6. Speaking first and’ writing afterward is one way of 
insuring good organization and effective treatment of de¬ 
tails. 

7. Require each pupil to keep a list of words and expres¬ 
sions which he misuses or which he ought not to use at all, 
with correct equivalents. 

Grade XI: 

Composition. 

1. To give experience in collecting and organizing 
material for themes of some length—1,500 words or more; to 
show how to secure interest and appropriate emphasis. 

2. To give practice in debating and parliamentary usage. 

3. To extend and fix knowledge of the principles of para¬ 
graph structure and sentence structure. 

4. To make the use of words more mature and more ac¬ 
curate. 

5. To provide varied practice in the preparation and pres¬ 
entation of short talks, articles, editorials, and descriptions. 

Material for eleventh grade work is: 

1. For short themes, expository descriptions of natural 
phenomena and mechanisms; plans of cities; discussions of 
colleges; informal arguments for and against certain voca¬ 
tions. 

2. For long themes, material on science, manufacturing, 
commerce, or biography gathered from current books and 
periodicals and from observation. 

3. Glass study of prose, such as the best articles in the 
World’s Work and Review of Reviews, in order to develop 
the idea of logical construction. 

4. Class study of examples of social letters by recognized 
authors. 

5. So much of grammar and rhetoric as the work of the 
pupils seems to demand. 

6. Current events, magazine articles, topics developed 
by observation and library work, questions for informal de¬ 
bate, biography, general reading. 


71 


7. Special courses: (a) Short stories; (b) dramatizations 
and verse making; (c) debating; (d) newspaper writing; 
(e) economic and industrial interests; (f) commercial cor¬ 
respondence. 

Method suggestions for eleventh grade composition are: 

1. Speaking, writing, reading good examples, and rewrit¬ 
ing is a good sequence of activities. 

2. Have class exercises in the organization of material. 

3. Let members of the class report progress, exchange read¬ 
ings and clippings and bibliography. 

4. Let pupils hand in outlines in advance of finished 
papers. 

5. Pupils should learn how to consult library catalogs and 
periodical indexes such as the Reader’s Guide, how to file 
notes and keep a card index, and how to revise manuscript. 

6. Most of the work of writing should be done in the 
classroom under supervision. 

7. There should be much testing of the pupils’ work as 
to clearness through unity and coherence. 

The three adopted texts on Composition and Grammar, 
Ward’s Sentence and Theme, Lewis and Hosic’s Practical 
English for High Schools, and Ward’s Theme Building, 
were written to meet the requirements mentioned in the fore¬ 
going pages. 

For example the Committee on Reorganization of English 
in Secondary Schools stated that one one ability to be culti¬ 
vated is “The Sentence Sense.” This is the big problem in 
the eighth grade, and recent investigation shows that Ward’s 
Sentence and Theme is a definitely mapped year’s cam¬ 
paign to reach the “sentence sense” goal. It makes a con¬ 
centrated attack on those defects of the sentence which are 
constantly recurrent in beginners’ themes. Adequate pro¬ 
vision is made for composition work in the eighth grade. 
There are forty exercises in theme writing, as for example, 
on page 47. This text also stresses the importance of spell¬ 
ing, and suggests proper methods of teaching it in thirty- 
nine sections, related to composition work, as Section 39, page 
61; Section 77, page 100. Unless the spelling is taught 
in connection with the work in English, it does not function 
in the written work of the pupil. 


Method 


Adopted 

Texts 


Ward’s 
Sentence 
and Theme 


72 


Lewis and 
Hosio’s Prac¬ 
tical Eng¬ 
lish for 
High Schools 


Ward’s 

Theme 

Building 


General 

Purpose 


For the ninth grade, Lewis and Hosic’s Practical English 
for High Schools continues the work in spelling and com¬ 
position. His classification and treatment of the parts of 
speech is complete. As one illustration of how this text 
complies with the recommendations of the Committee on 
the Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools, notice 
that it devotes eighty pages to the subject of letter writ¬ 
ing, giving specimens of formal and informal, personal and 
business letters. His treatment of the business letter is 
effective and exhaustive. Since every pupil who graduates 
from a high school is expected to understand and to prac¬ 
tice correct letter writing, the teacher should not under¬ 
estimate the value of these exercises. 

Ward’s Theme Building is written from the standpoint 
that good composition is “Steady progress from point to 
point,” and constant practice is provided in the develop¬ 
ment of the paragraph and the art of passing skillfully 
from one paragraph to the next. Since this text provides 
for oral composition, theme writing in the class room under 
supervision, and pupils’ criticism of the work of their con¬ 
temporaries as recommended by the Committee on the Re¬ 
organization of English in Secondary Schools, the teacher 
cannot do better than to follow it closely. 

On practically every page of the adopted texts, provision 
is made for carrying out some recommendation of the Com¬ 
mission on Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools. 

ENGLISH LITERATURE : , # 

Material from the Report of the Commission on the Re¬ 
organization of English in the Secondary Schools is given 
below in connection with the discussion of Literature. 

The essential object of the literature work of the high 
school is to appeal to the developing sensibilities of adoles¬ 
cence as to lead to eager and appreciative reading of books 
of as high an order as is possible for the given individual, 
to the end of both present and future development of his 
character and the formation of the habit of turning to good 
books for v companionship in hours of leisure. To this gen¬ 
eral purpose, stated somewhat more in detail in the first 
three paragraphs below, all other purposes must be secondary. 


73 


1. To cultivate high ideals of life and conduct through 
literature of power, in so far as such appeal is adapted to 
the understanding and sympathies of pupils of these grades. 

2. To stimulate the imaginative and emotional faculties 
of the pupil to a degree comparable to the development of 
his reasoning powers to his other school work. 

3. To broaden the mental experience by supplying a 
sympathetic acquaintance with scenes in various geographical 
sections and with historical periods of the world. This has 
two distinct values: (1) Psychologically it forms centers 
of apperception about which fresh facts will tend to accu¬ 
mulate in the future, the process being vitalized by the 
human interest attaching to the central historical or fictional 
figures; and (2) by the presentation of persons acting in 
accordance with the demands of conditions new to the pupil 
and attack is made early in the educative process upon 
the tendency toward a merely local or provincial outlook 
upon life. 

4. To give the pupil early a delightful first-hand ac¬ 
quaintance with the simpler writings of some authors of 
high rank to the end that he may later pass easily and 
naturally to their more complex works. 

5. To present such a variety of types of literary pro¬ 
duction as is consistent with the pupil’s mental grasp in 
the given grade and with the accomplishment of the other 
purposes herein indicated. 

6. To improve the pupil’s powers of self-expression by 
energizing his thought, by presenting worthy models of con¬ 
struction, and by instilling a feeling for style in the narrow 
sense through specific study of technique. 

7. To fix in memory a considerable body of suitable 
poetry and prose, which shall serve throughout life as a 
source of joy, a criterion for the evaluation of other writ¬ 
ings, and a stimulus to further reading. 

8. To train pupils in discriminating among the current 
publications and dramatic productions, choosing the best. 

9. The literature lesson should broaden, deepen, and en¬ 
rich the imaginative and emotional life of the student. 
Literature is primarily a revelation and an interpretation 
of life; it pictures from century to century the growth of 


Special 

Purpose 


Special 

Purposes 


f 


74 


Special 

Purposes 


the human spirit. It should be the constant aim of the 
English teacher to lead pupils so to read that they find 
their own lives imaged in this larger life, and attain slowly, 
from a clearer appreciation of human nature, a deeper and 
truer understanding of themselves. 

10. The study of literature should arouse in the minds 
of pupils an admiration for great personalities, both of 
authors and characters in literature. No man is higher than 
his ideals. Human beings grow unconsciously in the direc¬ 
tion of that which they admire. Teachers of English must, 
then, consciously work to raise the pupil’s standards of what 
is true and fine in men and women. The literature lesson 
must furnish the material out of which may be created 
worthy and lasting ideals of life and conduct. 

11. The literature lesson should raise the plane of enjoy¬ 
ment in reading to progressively higher levels. Reading is 
still the chief recreation of many people. It should be the 
aim of the English teacher to make it an unfailing resource 
and joy in the lives of all. To make it yield the greatest 
pleasure will involve the consideration of literature not only 
as to its content as a standard of facts and ideas but as 
an art. The literature teacher should not be content with 
rousing an interest in what is said; if he would give the 
fullest enjoyment, he must develop some appreciation of the 
way in which it is said. 

12. In order that the reading habit may yield the pleasure 
and joy of which it is capable, the English lesson should 
give to the student such knowledge of the scope and con¬ 
tent of literature as will leave him with a sense of abundance 
of interesting material, and a trained ability and desire to 
find for himself such intellectual and spiritual food as he 
may need for his growth and his pleasure. 

13. In order that the above ends may be realized, the 
teacher of literature must assume his part in the conscious 
development of the intellectual faculties of his students. 
They must be trained not only to feel more sensitively and 
deeply, and to imagine more vividly, but to think more ac¬ 
curately and intelligently, that they may have the power not 
only, of correct interpretation but of sane and wise appli¬ 
cation to life of the literature to which it is the duty of the 
teacher to lead them. 


/ 


75 


Following are some criterions which will aid in the selec¬ 
tion of high school literature. 

1. Value of content (power of broadening the mental 
vision and stimulating thought) ; ethical soundness, human 
sympathy, optimism; literary qualities. 

2. Power to grip the interest of pupils of the given grade. 
They must enjoy, not merely tolerate. 

3. Subordination of excellence of style, when necessary, 
to value of content and power to arouse interest. 

4. Recognition of the fact that the reading interests of 
eighth and ninth grade pupils are almost entirely narrative, 
but that there should be an effort to secure such diversity 
as is possible in time and place of action, with due atten¬ 
tion to heroic subjects, and to the best from foreign litera¬ 
tures and the past. 

5. A variety of choice such that no school shall be re¬ 
quired, for the sake of uniformity, to refrain from doing 
its best in both organization and extent of course. 

6. The need of organizing the reading, especially that to 
be done in class, so that the selections will constitute some¬ 
thing of a progression or course. It must, however, be 
recognized in the literature of grades eight and nine that 
there are but two fundamental principles of arrangement 
or development; namely, variety within clearly marked limits 
and gradual growth in breadth of content and depth of 
appeal. 

7. Literature chosen for any given school should make 
a natural appeal to the pupils concerned, for without in¬ 
terest, which depends upon this appeal, there will be no 
enjoyment; without enjoyment, there will be no beneficial 
result. All literature that in the light of experience con¬ 
tains no such appeal should be excluded, no matter how 
respectable it may be from age or reputation. 

8. The literature chosen for study, as distinguished from 
that used as supplementary reading, should be above the 
level of the pupil’s unguided enjoyment, otherwise there is 
no raising of the standard of taste. It is the task of the 
teacher to discover to the pupil undreamed-of interest, and 
to lead him to find enjoyment in literature increasingly rich 
and fine. 


Choices of 
Literature 


76 


Choices of 
Literature 


9. In order to attain the first end of literature, the 
broadening of the mental and spiritual horizon of the student, 
the books chosen for study should be worth while; that is, 
they should contain stimulating thought, sound ethical ideals, 
normal and strong characters, noble conduct, pure feeling. 
This does not imply that every book should point a moral, 
but that the pervading ethical tone of every book should 
be without question sound, in order that its effect may 
be wholesome, at a period in which standards of conduct 
are being formed that may last through a lifetime. The 
morbidly introspective, the vicious, the mentally abnormal, 
even when drawn with great art, should not be presented to 
adolescents. 

10. In order that the literature course may leave with 
students an abundance of rich material from which, through¬ 
out life, to make choice in reading, some historical view of 
literature should be given. To do this, it is not necessary 
to study the history of literature with any thoroughness, nor 
to study or even mention writings whose importance is mainly 
historical or whose appeal is to an experience of the world 
far beyond the possibility of high school students. It is 
important, however, to cover all the greater writers of our 
past who approach the young mind, in either experience 
or its ideals; to extend as far as possible the mental reach 
of the pupils, by making them feel the lasting values of some 
of our older literature. It is also important to encourage, 
by means of supplementary reading lists and library refer¬ 
ence topics, individual excursions in to literary fields not 
the province of regular class work. 

11. In general, the trend of choice should favor the 
‘ ‘ classics. ’ ’ We hear much today of the need for contem¬ 
porary literature, as if a substitution of current books for 
those who have endured or are enduring the test of time, 
would solve the problems of English teaching. The main 
trouble lies not in our choice of books. Classic literature 
still has an appeal for healthy-minded young people, if it 
is sympathetically and wisely presented. However, students 
must be shown how to find the riches in great books; their 
gold does not lie in the surface, but yields only to patient 
search. Great books still have the power to strengthen and 


77 


uplift to furnish solace and good cheer. Who shall say that 
boys and girls of today will not need their clear note of 
inspiration and courage as much if not more than their 
fathers and mothers of yesterday. It is the joyous preroga¬ 
tive of the teacher of literature to lead his pupils to this 
source of permanent riches. If he fails, it is not because 
the wealth is no longer of value, but because he is unable 
to point the way. 

12. The English course should provide a variety of liter¬ 
ary types. A true education should offer a range of material 
wide enough to encourage a versatility of tastes; it should 
also give some conception of the comprehensiveness of litera¬ 
ture. More important still, it should offer variety enough to 
make it possible for each student to find the type which holds 
for him the highest pleasure and greatest good. The boy for 
whom lyric poetry has little appeal may be roused to thought 
and action by the drama or novel; one attracted by none of 
these may be caught and held by the essay or great public 
speech. Moreover, the young mind craves change; it is in¬ 
capable of the long-sustained attention of the maturer student 
of college grade. School literature, therefore, must be varied 
enough to permit of necessary adaptability and change. 

Both the pupil’s reading in high school grades and the 
teacher’s guidance of that reading naturally divide into two 
distinct phases. A few tried pieces of high order may well 
be read in class sympathetically, for content and beauty, and 
at the same time simpler works should be read by the pupils 
individually and for the most part at home. The class room 
work will stimulate and help to control the outside reading 
and this in turn tend to develop the desired habit of reading 
freely and wisely. There will be suggested methods appro¬ 
priate to each of these forms of the teacher’s work. 

Following are some suggestions by the commission as to 
methods of teaching literature. 

1. Fundamental is the comprehension of the meaning of 
the w r ork as a whole, and of the contribution of its various 
parts to that meaning. In narrative this involves an under¬ 
standing of the cause-and-effect relationship between the 
various incidents and between character and action, a study 
that often culminates in the perception of some pervading 


General 

Method 


Classroom 

Method 


78 


Classroom 

Method 


principle governing human life. As to order of procedure, in 
the case of many shorter forms it is advisable to begin with 
an oral reading that carefully preserves the spirit of the work 
and to follow this reading with a discussion of the more im¬ 
portant interpretative details. In the case of the longer works 
it is usually necessary to examine first the successive sections 
and then by a rapid review to unify these into a compact 
whole. It is important to avoid the two extremes (1) of 
merely reading the work without any adequate comprehension 
of its message, and (2) of entering into labored analysis. 
What constitutes an effective middle between these extremes 
must be settled independently by each teacher for each work 
on the basis of (1) the difficulty of the writing and (2) the 
needs and mood of the class. 

2. Stimulation of the imaginative and emotional faculties 
of the pupil is mainly dependent upon inducing him to identi¬ 
fy himself in thought with the writer and (in narrative) with 
the characters. He must be led for the time to see and to 
feel as did the writer, or to hope or fear, to despair or 
triumph, as do the characters in the play or story. To this 
end more than to any other must the teacher’s interpretative 
powers be bent, for if he fails in this, the work can not rise 
above the mediocre. As a means of securing this attitude of 
mind, the pupil may, for instance, be asked to visualize a 
scene orally without glancing at the text, the test in such a 
case being consistency with the author’s conception, and not 
mere repetition of details held in memory from the reading; 
or he may be asked to talk or write upon a situation paral¬ 
lel with that in the text, but drawn from his own experience, 
real or imagined; or he may take part in arranging and 
enacting simple dramatizations. 

3. The teacher should be equipped with various types of 
additional information for various types of writings. Such 
are: Additional features of background, human and other¬ 
wise, for foreign scenes; details concerning the life and 
conceptions of the peoples, who produced such primitive 
form of literature as “The Odyssey” or “The Song of 
Roland;” and anecdotes illustrating the personalities of the 
authors. Such detailed methods, however, as are involved 
in the presentation of a play of the time of Shakespeare have 
in general no place in the work of the high school. 


79 


4. In the reading of poetry special attention should be 
paid to the cultivation of a keen ear for the lilt of the verse. 
In the eighth and ninth grades the chief reliance must be 
upon the pupil’s sense of rhythm as stimulated by contact 
with a teacher skilled in oral interpretation, but by the be¬ 
ginning of the tenth grade he should perhaps be ready for 
a knowledge of the use of the four principal feet as obtained 
by the analysis of very simple and regular lines of verse 
and by making verses of his own. 

5. Some of the passages read should be committed to 
memory, the passages being assigned by the teacher, or 
selected by the class as a whole, or left to the choice of the 
individual members of the class. The method of memor¬ 
izing is important. If pupils will read aloud the passages 
selected, once or twice a day thoughtfully for a couple of 
weeks, they will find they have unconsciously mastered them. 
Passages so memorized will be remembered much longer than 
those learned in shorter sections day by day. Several repe¬ 
titions of such passages at gradual lengthening intervals 
will be necessary to insure their permanent retention. Mem¬ 
orizing should follow, not precede, a clear perception of the 
progress of the thought of the selection. 

6. Grammatical analysis and word study are valuable aids 
in determining the meaning of a given passage, and should be 
used whenever necessary for that purpose. Their introduc¬ 
tion into the literature hour for any purpose other than 
this, however, is to be deplored. Other uses, essential and 
vital, they have; but these should be given another place 
in the English course. 

The closely analytical treatment of all literary master¬ 
pieces, with an exhaustive study of notes, allusions, figures 
of speech, meanings of words, etc., is happily giving way 
before the just criticism which has assailed it, to a more in¬ 
telligent handling, which decides upon method in accordance 
with the value of the piece to be taught and the chief ends 
to be attained by its use. Along with this outgrown method 
should also go much of the present reading in class, especially 
the common practice of reading ahead at sight, with one 
pupil repeating to the rest the words of the book open be¬ 
fore them. Such an exercise is usually sheer waste of time. 


Classroom 

Method 


80 


Classroom 

Method 


There is rarely, if ever, grasp enough of the thought on a 
pupil’s part to make the reading in any sense illuminat¬ 
ing, so that the effort is worse than useless. There are how¬ 
ever, other kinds of classroom study that are effective aids 
in varying and enlivening a literature class. These include: 

7. Interpretative reading, in which the minds of all are 
actively engaged on the problem of how the thought of the 
writer can best be expressed. This is the only kind of read¬ 
ing aloud by students that is worth while. 

8. Discussion, necessitating some personal reaction, such 
as the formation of opinions on what has been read. This 
calls for skillful questioning on the part of the teacher, 
to avoid mere recital of facts on the one hand, and bluffing 
on the other. 

9. The sharing of information (resulting from library 
work, etc.) that throws light on the book being studied, or 
in some way enlarges the cultural background. 

10. Reports on supplementary reading, not perfunctory, 
but such as advertise to the class the book read. 

11 Practice in reading to one’s self in the particular 
manner suited to a special book. This may be a ‘‘books 
open” exercise, based on definite directions from the teacher, 
and ending in some test of the efficiency with which they 
have been applied. 

12. Memorizing. This should be definite and regular; a 
body of selected passages of high worth should be required 
in each year. Passages should not be long, but should be 
rigidly insisted upon. The habit of memorizing can in most 
cases be trained by practice, so that the task becomes easier; 
and the result, a body of good verse and prose permanently 
in the mind, is perhaps the best thing pupils can get out 
of their study in English. 

13. Dramatizing. A valuable exercise, especially in the 
ninth and tenth grades, as an aid in arousing interest and 
leading to more attentive reading and clearer visualization, 
though in the present highly stimulated state of all dramatic 
work, in danger of being overdone. It should not be used, 
however, unless the material has actual dramatic appeal. 

14. Home reading. This is very important because it 
is what the school is trying to train young people to do. It 


81 


should include use of the public library, having a library card, 
learning to use the catalog and the ordinary books of refer¬ 
ence, drawing books for recreative reading. It should also 
include some guidance in book buying. Pupils ought to 
know that, through the “Everyman’s Library” and other 
series, almost any really important book in literature can be 
had in attractive form for a price within the reach of all. 
There should be as much as possible of home reading under 
stimulated guidance, and of definite occasion provided for 
pupils to talk freely about what they read of their own 
choice.f 

A graduate of a high school should meet the following 
requirements in English.* * 

‘ ‘ A. He should have ability: 

1. To write original compositions—whether they be nar¬ 
ration, description, exposition, or simple argument—that are 
logically planned and so developed as to be conspicuous for 
unity and coherence. The spelling and grammar should be 
correct and the punctuation adequate. 

2. To plan coherently and give fluently a five-minute 
talk on some practical subject on which he has had time to 
think. 

3. To write any common type of business or social letter 
with technical accuracy and with simplicity and directness. 

4. To find and organize material for an original com¬ 
position of 1,000 words upon business, political, historical, 
literary, or scientific subjects. 

5. To read aloud at sight, with intelligence and clear 
enunciation, anything from a newspaper to a classic of ordi¬ 
nary difficulty. 

6. To tell why a piece of literature (like a standard 
novel or essay, or a lyric poem such as may be found in 
the Golden Treasury) has merit. 

7. To quote either orally or in writing 200 lines (not 
necessarily consecutive) of classic prose or poetry. 

fThe preceding sections bearing upon composition and literature, 
and including about twenty pages, were copied almost verbatim from 
the Report of the Committee on the Reorganization of English. Slight 
changes by way of adaptation were made in a few places. A number 
of paragraphs were added by the author of the Manual. Quotation 
marks were omitted for these reasons. 

*Page 75, High School Bulletin, No. 23, by H. M. Ivy, State Super¬ 
visor, Secondary Schools, Mississippi. 


Desirable 

English 

Accomplish¬ 

ments 



82 


Desirable 

English 

Acquire¬ 

ments 


Eighth 
Grade Eng¬ 
lish Sum¬ 
marized 


B. He should have a working knowledge of the course 
of both English and American literature, of their great names 
and. great books, and of some of the most significant in¬ 
fluences in history and life that have molded such literature. 

C. In addition to regular prescribed work in literature 
he should have read (from an approved list) four good books 
of short stories, five good novels, three good plays, two good 
biographies, two good books of history and travel.” 

SUMMARY OF ENGLISH BY GRADES 

English in the eighth grade includes oral and written com¬ 
position, grammar, spelling, and literature. While some of 
the better organized high schools may complete Ward’s 
“ Sentence and Theme” in the eighth grade, a majority of the 
schools will require longer than one school year to complete 
this text. If a study of 235 pages of this book, and The 
Sketch Book, Lady of the Lake, Julius Caesar, and Treasure 
Island are completed in the eighth grade, one credit unit in 
English will be given, provided the required number of hours 
are devoted to a study of English and the quality of the 
work done is satisfactory. If supplementary reading in ad¬ 
dition to a study of the classics named in the literature 
course of the eighth grade can be done, it will strengthen 
the English course of the grade and therefore be desirable. 
An unhurried, thorough course of three semesters devoted to 
a study of Sentence and Theme will probably prove the more 
satisfactory. 

Sentence and Theme provides for the teaching of spelling 
in connection with composition work, drill work being system¬ 
atically provided in the spelling of the 765 words most 
commonly misspelled by eighth grade pupils. This text also 
provides for the writing of forty themes. Functional gram¬ 
mar is stressed throughout Sentence and Theme. In teach¬ 
ing this text, teachers should use the author’s manual which 
is entitled “Pilot Book for Sentence and Theme.” This 
manual or pilot book gives detailed instructions in the use 
of the text. It will greatly facilitate the work in punctua¬ 
tion if pupils are required to use “Punctuation Leaves” for 
use with Sentence and Theme. These are bound in pamphlet 
form and can be purchased for twenty cents. In the eighth 


83 


grade three days »a week should be devoted to a study of 
Sentence and Theme and two days a week to a study of 
Literature. 

Ninth Grade English : 

The work of this grade also includes a study of oral and 
written composition, grammar, spelling, and literature. The 
teacher should not grow impatient because the work indi¬ 
cated for this grade is an apparent repetition of the eighth 
grade work, because it takes patient practice and frequent 
repetition and drill to “make perfect” in composition work. 
As in the eighth grade, N three days a week should be de¬ 
voted to composition and two to literature throughout the 
ninth grade. Schools which do not complete Sentence and 
Theme in the eighth grade will complete it in the first sem¬ 
ester of the ninth grade, after which about 164 pages of Prac¬ 
tical English for High Schools should be completed in the 
ninth grade. The completion of a study of the last 115 pages 
of Sentence and Theme, the first 164 pages of Practical Eng¬ 
lish, and Mikels’ Short Stories for English Courses, Enoch 
Arden, Macauley’s Lays of Ancient Rome, and David Copper- 
field in the ninth grade is the minimum for which a credit 
unit in English may be given. It is desirable that ad¬ 
ditional supplementary or home reading be done in litera¬ 
ture. A thorough and unhurried course in the composition 
texts is also recommended for this grade. Ample practice 
in oral and written theme work may not be provided if 
Sentence and Theme and Practical English are completed in 
too short a time. The manual for Sentence and Theme should 
be used by teachers. Directions as to method of procedure 
are given in the text of Practical English. Throughout the 
eighth and ninth grades, themes should be written at school 
under direction of teacher. The ninety-minute study-recita¬ 
tion period can be used to good advantage in theme writing. 

Tenth Grade English: 

Throughout the tenth grade two periods a week should be 
devoted to composition and three to literature. A study of 
pages 164 through 390 of Practical English, and Queed, 
Pied Piper, As You Like It, and Ivanlioe constitute the 
minimum for which a credit unit may be given in the tenth 
grade. While an unhurried, thorough course in Practical 


Ninth 

Grade 

English 

Summar 

ized 


Tenth Grade 
English Sum¬ 
marized 


84 


English supplemented with additional practice in oral and 
written composition is recommended for the tenth grade, it is 
desirable that additional supplementary literature be read by 
the tenth grade pupils. The study of Miller’s English 
Literature as a supplementary text should follow the com¬ 
pletion of a study of the four prescribed texts in literature; 
should be informal; should not stress names, dates, and facts 
of historical background; and should be read for pleasure, 
entertainment, and incidentally for information. Recitations 
based upon this text should be characterized by blackboard 
outlines and summaries, individual reports, and reference 
readings with definite purposes. Queed, a modern novel, 
deals with very recent events; the style is particularly ap¬ 
pealing, and there is a good love story without sentimentality. 


Eleventh 
Grade Eng¬ 
lish Sum¬ 
marized 


Eleventh Grade English : 

Two periods a week should be devoted to Theme Build¬ 
ing and Analysis, and three periods to literature in the 
eleventh grade. If suggestions in Workways for Theme 
Building, a teacher’s manual for Theme Building, are fol¬ 
lowed out by the teacher, all pupils of the eleventh grade 
will be able to complete the first 387 pages of Theme Build¬ 
ing. The best pupils of the eleventh grade, through special 
assignments, should learn Chapter twenty. A study of the 
first 387 pages of Theme Building, Arnold’s Wordsworth, 
Macaulay’s Life of Johnson, The Gentleman from Indiana, 
Macbeth, and Vision of Sir Launfal is the minimum for 
which a credit unit may be given in the eleventh grade. 
After completing the work named above, if there is time 
left, Dalgleish’s Grammatical Analysis may be taught. Sup¬ 
plementary reading in literature may be assigned for home 
reading and upon which reports may be made. Pace’s 
American Literature should be used as a supplementary 
text in literature. The method of procedure in teaching 
this text should be similar to that described on page 89 
for Miller’s English Literature in the tenth grade. The 
Gentleman from Indiana, another modern novel, is a strong 
and realistic novel of love and politics in the “Middle AVest. ” 
Woolley’s Handbook of Composition may be purchased and 
used by pupils in connection with their theme work if 


85 


local conditions demand it. It is believed, however, that 
part six and the appendix of Theme Building constitute 
sufficient reference material for eleventh grade pupils. 

The literature selections named in this manual as minimum 
requirements in each high school year, or grade, fulfill the 
requirements published by the National Conference on Uni¬ 
form Entrance Requirements in English published in pam¬ 
phlet form on February 22, 1922. In schools operating 
under the general school law, changes and substitutions in 
the published lists of literature texts are not authorized; 
in schools operating under special charters, substitutions may 
cause literature offerings to fall short of college entrance re¬ 
quirements. 

Books on the principles of teaching and which all teachers 
should read have been listed on page 52 of this manual. In 
addition to these, every teacher of English should own and 
be familiar with the following books: 

1. Bulletin, 1917, No. 2, Reorganization of English in 
Secondary Schools, Supt. Public Documents, Washington, 
D. C. Twenty cents. 

2. The teaching of English in the Secondary School, by 
Thomas; Houghton-Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. $2.00. 

3. How to Teach English Classics, by Thomas; Hough¬ 
ton-Mifflin Company, Boston. 27 cents. 

4. Shepard’s Shakespeare Questions; Houghton-Mifflin 
Company, Boston. 76 cents. 

5. Pilot Book for Sentence and Theme; Scott Forseman 
Co. Free. 

6. Workways for Theme Building, Scott Forseman Com¬ 
pany. Free. 

The four books last named may be secured through the 
Central Text Book Depository, R. L. Bryan Company, Man¬ 
agers, Columbia, S. C. Every English teacher should sub¬ 
scribe for and read The English Journal, a monthly publi¬ 
cation; 68th St. and Stewart Ave., Chicago, Ill. $2.50 per 
year. 

History, Civics, and Government : 

(Social Studies) 

General aims of Social Studies : 


Literature 
Substitutions 
not Author¬ 
ized 


English 

Teachers’ 

Bibliogra¬ 

phy 


f 


86 


Ideals and 
Loyalty 


Moral 

Values 


“High National ideals, and intelligent and genuine loyalty 
to them should thus be a specific aim of the social studies in 
American high schools.” (Social Studies, p. 10.) 

Such studies as History and Civics give the teacher op¬ 
portunity to clarify the pupil’s comprehension of right and 
wrong. 

“In grades 8, 9, 10, and 11 these subjects can be so 
taught as to bring home certain large conceptions like that 
of social heredity, i.e., the truth that the acts of one 
generation bear fruit for good or ill in the lives of the 
generations that follow. For instance, when a ship landed 
in Jamestown in 1619 with a cargo of slaves, the conse¬ 
quences of that act appeared over 200 years later in all 
the tragedies of the war between the States. Our pupils 
will be better citizens if they form the habit of forecast¬ 
ing the effect likely to be produced upon future generations 
by what society is doing or failing to do at the present time. 

“A second conception of this kind is that of social prog¬ 
ress. Too frequent an obstacle to social advance is the in¬ 
ability of great masses of people to understand that pre¬ 
vailing practices, in spite of their long and apparently 
secure entrenchment, should and can be changed for the 
better. One of the aims of history teaching should be to 
show how man has improved upon his customs and insti¬ 
tutions, and to encourage the conviction that further change 
is still desirable and possible. As Professor Robinson says 
in the New History, there is every need to throw the weight 
of our influence on the side of the new truth which has 
not yet won recognition rather than on the side of what is 
alreadv well established: 

4/ 

“ ‘At every crossing on the road that leads to the future, 
each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men ap¬ 
pointed to guard the past. Let us have no fear lest the 
fairest towers of former days be sufficiently defended. The 
least that the most trained among us can do is not to add 
to the immense weight which nature drags along.’ 

“Care must be exercised, however, to keep young people 
from minimizing the good even in institutions which need 
reconstruction. The first essential to making the environ¬ 
ment over for the better is a genuine appreciation of what 


87 


still deserves to be honored. In this connection pupils should 
be reminded how largely today's advance over the past is 
due to the very labors of which they may now be tempted 
to think lightly. For example, we know vastly more about 
America today than Columbus knew, but only because of 
what he achieved. ‘A dwarf perched upon the shoulders 
of a giant’ sees farther than the giant does; but he should 
remember w’hy. 

“The social studies present an opportunity for the teacher 
to clarify those misused terms ‘liberty’ and ‘equality.’ There 
is a better reason for prizing American freedom than the 
fact that it permits one to do as he pleases within the limits 
of noninterference with others. On moral grounds, freedom 
is the opportunity to express what in each human being 
is best. Our political liberty, therefore, is to be cherished 
for the opportunity which it affords the humblest citizen 
not to do as he chooses, but to share to the full extent of 
his unique powers in the common responsibility for the 
improvement of American life. Emphasis should be placed 
upon the desire to participate in common duties rather than 
upon the enjoyment of privileges. The hope of the recent 
revolution in Russia is that talented men and women, in¬ 
stead of being sent to Siberia as heretofore, may now be 
encouraged when they offer their gifts to their country. 
Political freedom is to be prized for providing such a chance. 
This is the reason why voluntary group activities on the 
part of the pupils afford such excellent preparation for 
citizenship. 

“The idea to be stressed in these group undertakings is 
the advantage of participating voluntarily in the common 
responsibility. 

“The subject of equality may be treated in like manner. 
Americans are far from equal in intelligence, character, and 
power. Here is an excellent occasion to discuss with the 
pupils the moral basis of respect and superiority. Men are 
morally equal in the sense that each is presumed to be 
capable of appreciating his duties and of trying to live up 
to them. The most unlettered man is dignified by the fact 
that he possesses this mark of what is essentially human. 
Freedom and equalitjq therefore, are tributes to the dig¬ 
nity suggested by men’s possibilities, not by their actual 


Moral 

Values 


88 


Moral 

Values 


accomplishments. If the right to vote rested upon perfect 
fitness for civic responsibility, which of us would be wise 
enough and good enough to merit the franchise? Equality 
assumes that each can try to be his best. Since this best 
varies, however, with the individual, political equality should 
be regarded as a means of permitting the valuable inequal¬ 
ities to make their contribution. Expertness should not be 
suppressed or handicapped by caste restrictions of any kind 
whatsoever. 

“With this conception of freedom and equality must go 
a corresponding respect for superiority, that is, for superior 
ability not chiefly in money-making, but in artistic, scientific, 
philosophical, political, and moral achievement. America 
should disprove the statement that democracy levels down¬ 
ward. 

“Democracy also requires ethical attitudes toward the 
relatively undeveloped. The idea is that the undeveloped 
are to be respected for their potential excellence and that the 
highest obligation of the more privileged is to give the 
handicapped the utmost encouragement and help to develop 
their own unique best. 

“Other instances might be mentioned to illustrate how 
the teacher may enlighten the moral judgment of his pupils. 
Back of the laws of every State lie certain moral convictions 
based upon the experience of generations; and these convic¬ 
tions, such as respect for fundamental rights, should be 
interpreted. Elsewhere in this report reference is made to 
the opportunities for pupils to learn truths of civic relation¬ 
ship by practice. 

“At no time in the secondary school ought the opportunity 
be overlooked for character building through the inspira¬ 
tion afforded by the study of great lives. Nor should the 
admiration of the pupils be confined to the heroes of their 
own country. How many have any real sense that Wash¬ 
ington was not the only liberator in the world? They 
should be introduced to what is ennobling in the lives of 
men and women in other lands, e. g., William the Silent, 
St. Francis of Assisi, Hugo Grotius, the brothers Grimm, 
Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Thomas Moore, Florence Nighten¬ 
gale, Louis Pasteur—the field of stimulating biography is 
rich. 


89 


“At every stage much can be accomplished by discussing 
the moral bearings of the facts about group life with which 
history is essentially concerned. 

‘It is not kings and dynasties, campaigns and statutes, 
that we have to study primarily, but problems; and prob¬ 
lems are history in the making. Unless the historian can 
find the moral problem in the event of the past, he is dealing 
only with dry bones.’ 

“In other words, since people are obliged in every age to 
learn how to live together, history can be made one of the 
most fruitful subjects in the school when this point of view 
is applied to problems such as the following: Ways of 
earning a living; social classes, their conflicts and adjust¬ 
ments ; attitudes toward those who differ—tolerance, intoler¬ 
ance, democratic appreciation, and encouragement; patriot¬ 
ism and changes in the conception of loyalty; science and 
its relation to health, industry, transportation, social inter¬ 
course ; war and peace; education; recreation; changing 
moral standards. The chief value of any such study should 
be the light that it throws upon similar problems in present 
life. 

‘ ‘ The most scrupulous care is needed, however, to guard 
against pointing a moral by presenting as fact what sound 
scholarship in history will not warrant. Care is also required 
lest pupils get false views about heroes and the common 
people. To make history a matter of the biographies of 
‘great men’ is one fallacy; to put all the emphasis upon 
mass action and slight the contribution of leadership is 
another. It is likewise fallacious to overemphasize the eco¬ 
nomic interpretation and minimize the force of ideas. 

“One of the conscious purposes of instruction in the his¬ 
tory of nations other than our own should be the cultivation 
of a sympathetic understanding of such nations and their 
peoples, of an intelligent appreciation of their contributions 
to civilization, and of a just attitude toward them.” (Bulle¬ 
tin, 1916, No. 28.) 

“A primary aim of instruction in American history should 
be to develop a vivid conception of American nationality, 
a strong and intelligent patriotism, and a keen sense of the 


Moral 

Values 


Moral 

Values 


Sympathetic 
Attitude 
Toward Other 
Nations 


Patriotism 


90 


Problems to 
Emphasize 


Cultivate 
T ruth.find- 
ing Atti¬ 
tude 


Topical or 

Problem 

Method 


Equip Room 
for Social 
Studies 


History 

Teachers’ 

Bibliogra¬ 

phy 


responsibility of every citizen for national efficiency.” (Bul¬ 
letin, 1916, No. 28.) 

General Method Suggestions: Instruction in all social 
studies should emphasize economic, social, and political 
problems. 

History instruction should stress accuracy and thoroughness. 
Pupils should be required to learn and to weigh evidence; 
to approach every topic with a sympathetic attitude and a 
desire to know the truth; and to bring the results of their 
studies into definite conclusions or concepts. 

Adopt to the fullest extent possible a “topical” or “prob¬ 
lem” method. Select for study topics or problems with 
reference to (a) the pupil’s own immediate interest, (b) 
general social significance. The practice of following text 
book or chronological sequence in history instruction with 
equal emphasis upon each page of the text is of doubtful 
value. Some conditions, institutions, and characters should 
be given preference over others. The “worthwhile” things 
should be stressed. Topics which constitute the backbone, 
the minimum essentials, of a course in history should be de¬ 
termined upon and through a series of lessons and readings; 
each topic should be developed. Assignments should not 
be made by pages but by topics. The assignment of each 
topic should be definite as to aim, ground to be covered, and 
results to be obtained. Probably the whole year of work in 
United States History may be organized around twenty 
topics. This type of history instruction recognizes the prin¬ 
ciple of relative values in history teaching. 

Equip the room in which social study recitations are held 
with maps, charts, pictures, models, reference books, and 
illustrative materials. 

For reading matter helpful to the history teacher, the fol¬ 
lowing publications are recommended: 

1. The Social Studies in Secondary Education, U. S. 
Bulletin, 1916, No. 28. 

2. Moral Values in Secondary Education, Bulletin, 1917 
No. 51. 

3. Johnson, the Teaching of History; Macmillan Com¬ 
pany. 




91 


4. American History, Regents’ Syllabus; Allyn and 
Bacon. 

5. World History, Regents’ Syllabus Courses, A and B; 
Allyn and Bacon. 

6. The Historical Outlook, $2.00 per year. 1619 Ran- 
stead St., Philadelphia. 


SOCIAL STUDIES SUMMARIZED BY SUBJECTS: 

Ancient History and Community Civics are suggested as 
one eighth grade study for pupils taking the general cur¬ 
riculum (see page 47) in both three and four-year high 
schools. There is no time in which to offer this subject to 
pupils taking the college preparatory and vocational curric- 
ulums (see pages 47 and 48). Eighth grade pupils taking 
the general curriculum should be required to take Hughes’ 
Community Civics in the first semester and West’s A Short 
History of Early Peoples in the second semester. This 
sequence is suggested first, because community civics is 
more easily understood than Ancient History by the pupil 
entering the eighth grade. Second, Community Civics tends 
to establish a consciousness of present community relations 
before the more remote development of these relations are 
studied. This early study of Community Civics provides a 
knowledge, an interest upon which to build a course in His¬ 
tory in the second semester. West’s Early Peoples, instead 
of West’s Ancient World, is suggested for this grade, first, 
because it constitutes a half year, or one semester course, 
and therefore makes a half year of Community Civics in 
the eighth grade possible. Second, West’s Early Peoples 
is a condensed form of West’s Ancient World, and while 
Early Peoples treats the same essential topics as West’s 
Ancient World, the arrangement of the material and the 
simple style of the author give a continuous story of the 
past that is better adapted to the ability of the eighth grade 
pupil to understand than does West’s Ancient World. 
The omission in Early Peoples of some of the material in¬ 
cluded in West’s Ancient World enables the pupil to secure 
a clearer concept of the History of the Ancient World as a 
whole (as a unit) and gives him a keener sense of its rela¬ 
tionship to the modern world. The illustrations of Early 


Community 
Civics and 
Early Peo¬ 
ples 


Community 
Civics and 
Early Peo¬ 
ples 


92 


General 
History and 
Modern 
World 


U. S. History 
and Govern¬ 
ment 


Tendencies 


Peoples give the pupil a clearer picture of the art, architec¬ 
ture, and sculpture of the Ancient World than does An¬ 
cient World. A completion of Early Peoples in a semester 
gives a half unit. Completion of Community Civics in a se¬ 
mester gives a half unit. 

In the college preparatory and vocational curriculums two 
years of history are indicated (see pages 47 and 48). In 
the four-year high schools either General History or Modern 
World should be taught in the tenth grade, in three-year 
high schools either one of these texts should be taught in the 
ninth grade. Modern World devotes 71 pages to Ancient 
History and General History devotes 239 pages to Ancient 
History. The high school principal and history teacher or 
teachers in any high school may decide which of these texts 
is better suited to the class which has not studied Ancient 
History. The completion of either General History or Mod¬ 
ern World in one school year entitles a pupil to one credit 
unit in history. 

United States History and Government should be taught 
in the eleventh grade of four-year schools, and in the tenth 
grade of three-year high schools. For the completion of 
Stephenson’s American History and either Wallace’s Civil 
Government of the United States or Magruder’s American 
Government in 1921 in one school year, one credit unit is 
given. There are two ways of offering these courses. One 
way is to complete the History course in the first semester 
before taking up the government, leaving the government 
until the latter semester when it is taken up and completed 
as a separate unit. The other way of offering the courses 
in History and Government is to correlate them. For exam¬ 
ple, when the Articles of Confederation are being studied 
on page 214 of the History, pages 28 through 39, Chapter 
III, of Magruder’s text should be studied. If the courses are 
correlated in this way one supplements the other and at the 
end of the year, the essential parts of both texts have been 
completed. 

Mathematics : 

The tendency in mathematics instruction is away from 
the older rigid division into “subjects” such as Theoretical 


93 


Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry toward composite, cor¬ 
related, unified or general courses which are functional. 

The aims of mathematics instruction may be said to be 
practical, disciplinary, and cultural. “The primary pur¬ 
poses of the teaching of Mathematics should be to develop 
those powers of understanding and of analyzing relations of 
quantity and of space which are necessary to an insight into 
and control over our environment and to an appreciation of 
the progress of civilization in its various aspects, and to 
develop those habits of thought and of action which will 
make these powers effective in the life of the individual. ’ ’ 
(U. S. Bulletin, 1921, No. 32.) 

(1) Since mathematical ability as expressed in mathemat¬ 
ical achievement and applications is a most powerful agency 
in advancing civilization and in order that society may 
profit by its available stock of mathematical ability, there 
is urgent need of some process that shall disclose this ability 
from the point of view both of society and its needs and of 
the individual and his satisfaction. (2) There is the group 
of general readers who need an interpretative knowledge 
of mathematics. (3) There is the group which will enter 
the trades and which will have definite need of a small 
amount of practical mathematics. (4) There is the group 
of prospective engineers who will need a considerable amount 
of mathematics. (5) There is the group which will special¬ 
ize in mathematics and which will need an amount of math¬ 
ematics sufficient to satisfy inherent tendencies and demands 
of further study. (6) There is another group which feela 
no other need for mathematics than to satisfy entrance re¬ 
quirements to some college or other. South Carolina col¬ 
leges require mathematics as follows for admission to their 
respective Freshman classes: 

Per cent, requiring no unit of Algebra ... 10 

Per cent, requiring 1% units of Algebra . . 45 

Per cent, requiring 2 units of Algebra ... 45 

Per cent, requiring 1 unit of Plane Geometry 90 

Per cent, requiring no Plane Geometry ... 10 

Per cent, requiring some Solid Geometry . . 0 

When planning mathematics courses, the needs of these 
six groups should be considered by high school principals. 


General 

Aims 


Types of 

Mathematical 

Needs 


94 


Quality of 
Instruction 
in Mathemat¬ 
ics 


Arithmetic 


t 


Algebra 


Teachers who teach mathematics should develop in their 
pupils the ability to perform all mathematical manipulations 
with speed and accuracy. The ability to solve problems 
growing out of every-day life should be developed. Train¬ 
ing in ‘ ‘ functional thinking,’ 7 that is, thinking in terms of 
relationship, should be emphasized. Accomplishment in the 
development of these qualities should be measured by means 
of standard tests every three months. The practice of giv¬ 
ing partial credit to a pupil for the working of an example 
or the solution of a problem when his work contains one or 
more errors is of doubtful value. 

While Arithmetic is not considered a high school subject, 
one-half unit will be given for the completion of Stone- 
Millis High School Arithmetic. This book contains 120 pages 
devoted to a few well selected, practical, every-day topics. 
In addition to this there are a few pages devoted to review. 
There is no excuse for a high school class devoting more 
than one semester to the study of this arithmetic. This 
course is suggested for the first semester of the eighth grade 
for all pupils taking the General and Vocational curriculums 
(see pages 47 and 48). Pupils who are taking the college 
preparatory curriculum and who need only one and one-half 
units of Algebra for admission to the college of their choice 
may take the Arithmetic in the first semester of the eighth 
grade. Pupils should not be expected to study Arithmetic 
and Algebra at the same time. Arithmetic should precede 
Algebra and should be completed before Algebra is begun. 

The report of the Committee on the Reorganization of 
Mathematics in Secondary Schools contains the following 
statement concerning material which should be provided in 
Beginners’ Algebra: 

/ 

“1. The formula—its construction, meaning, and use 
(a) as a concise language; (b) as a shorthand rule for com¬ 
putation; (c) as a general solution; (d) as an expression of 
the dependence of one variable upon another. 

“2. Graphs and graphic representations in general—their 
construction and interpretation in (a) representing facts 
(statistical, etc.); (b) representing dependence; (c) solving 
problems. 


95 


“After the necessity of technique has been adequately pre¬ 
sented graphic representation should not be considered as 
a separate topic but should be used throughout, whenever 
helpful, as an illustrative and interpretative instrument. 

“3. Positive and negative members—their meaning and 
use (a) as expressing both magnitude and one of two oppo¬ 
site directions or senses; (b) their graphic representation; 

(c) the fundamental operations applied to them. 

“4. The equation—its use in solving problems: 

(a) Linear equations in one unknown—their solution and 
applications. 

(b) Simple cases of quadratic equations when arising in 
connection with formulas and problems. 

(c) Equations in two unknowns, with numerous concrete 

illustrations. 

» 

(d) Various simple applications of ratio and proportion 
in cases in which they are generally used in problems of 
similarity and in other problems of ordinary life. In view 
of the usefulness of the ideas and training involved, this 
subject may also properly include simple cases of variation. 

“5. Algebraic technique: (a) The fundamental opera- Algebra 
tions. 

“Their connection with the rules of arithmetic should be 
clearly brought out and made to illuminate numerical proc¬ 
esses. Drill in these operations should be limited strictly 
in accordance w T ith the principle mentioned in Chapter II., 
page 9. In particular, ‘nests’ of parentheses should be 
avoided, and multiplication and division should not involve 
much beyond monomial and binomial multipliers, divisors, 
and quotients. 

(b) Factoring: The only cases that need be considered 
are (i) common factors of the terms of a polynomial; (ii) 
the difference of two squares; (iii) trinomials of the second 
degree that can be easily factored by trial. 

(c) Fractions. 

“Here again the intimate connection with the correspond¬ 
ing processes of arithmetic should be made clear and should 
serve to illuminate such processes. The four fundamental 
operations with fractions should be considered only in con- 


96 


Algebra 


Plane 

Geometry 


nection with simple cases and should be applied constantly 
throughout the course so as to gain the necessary accuracy 
and facility. 

(d) Exponents and radicals. The work done on expo¬ 
nents and radicals should be confined to the simplest material 
required for the treatment of formulas. The laws for pos¬ 
itive integral exponents should be included. The consider¬ 
ation of radicals should be confined to transformations of 
the following types: 

ya 2 b=a\/b, \/a/b= 1 b\/ab and ya|b=-\/a|Vb, and to 
the numerical evaluation of simple expressions involving 
the radical sign. A process for finding the square root of 
a number should be included, but not for finding the square 
root of a polynomial. 

(e) Stress should be laid upon the need for checking 
solutions. ’ ’ 

The two State adopted texts in Algebra should be ex¬ 
amined with a view to using the one which the more nearly 
meets the foregoing recommendations. 

With the material made available through the present 
adopted texts in Algebra, there is no excuse for any class 
devoting more than three semesters to a completion of quad¬ 
ratics for which one and a half credit units may be given. 
Pupils who take the General and Vocational curriculums 
study arithmetic in the first semester of the eighth grade, 
begin the study of Algebra in the second semester of the 
eighth grade and complete quadradics in the second semester 
of the ninth grade. Pupils taking the college preparatory 
curriculum and needing two units of Algebra for admission 
to college will begin the study of Algebra at the beginning 
of the eighth grade and complete the Binomial Theorem and 
Progressions in the ninth grade. Provision is made in the 
General and Vocational curriculums for pupils desiring to 
study the Binomial Theorem and. Progressions to do this 
in one semester of the eleventh grade (see pages 47 and 
48). Algebra teachers will find the Sykes Comstock Algebra 
manual very helpful as to method in Algebra instruction. 

Plane Geometry should be taught in the tenth grade of 
three-year high schools. In four-year high schools in the 



97 


college preparatory curriculum, it is necessary to teach it 
in the eleventh grade (see page 47). In whatsoever grade 
it is taught Plane Geometry should be studied for thirty- 
six weeks. When it is studied throughout the school year 
and completed one credit unit is allowed for it. The task 
of the teacher of Plane Geometry is to train pupils system¬ 
atically to do original work. “The only way to teach a 
student to solve originals is to teach him to analyze a new 
problem ’ (Judd, Psychology of High School Subjects). 
Pupils should carry at the same time side by side the study 
of the proofs of theorems and original work. In a study of 
Plane Geometry the pupils should be trained to use figures, 
to appreciate the logical arrangement of the steps, and to 
analyze problems. The manual based upon Plane Geometry 
and prepared by Sykes Comstock will prove of great assist¬ 
ance to teachers of Plane Geometry who use it. 

Since Solid Geometry is not required for admission to 
any South Carolina college, and since other subjects of 
greater educational value, when measured by the standard 
of “aim and objectives” quoted on page 1, and the prac¬ 
tical needs of high school pupils may be offered in place of 

Solid Geometry, high school principals are advised to offer 

/ 

it only when a specific and justifiable demand is made for it. 

Helpful publications for the Mathematics teacher are: 

1. Bulletin, 1921, No. 32, The Reorganization of Math¬ 
ematics in Secondary Education, Superintendent of Public 
Documents, Washington, D. C. 

2. Bulletin, 1920, No. 1, The Problem of Mathematics 
in Secondary Education, Superintendent of Public Docu¬ 
ments, Washington, D. C. 

3. Schultze, Teaching of Secondary Mathematics, The 
Macmillan Company. 

4. Young, The Teaching of Mathematics, Longmans, 
Green & Company. 

5. The Mathematics Teacher (Monthly Publication), 103 
Avondale Place, Syracuse, N. Y. 

6. Sykes Comstock Algebra and Geometry Manuals, Rand, 
McNally and Company, 536 Clark Street, Chicago, Ill. 


Plane 

Geometry 


Solid 

Geometry 


Mathematics 

References 


98 


Objectives 
and Aim 


Authorized 

Courses 


Classifi¬ 

cation 


Laboratory 

Equipment 


Laboratory 

Procedure 


Science : 

General Statements: Science instruction is especially val¬ 
uable in bringing about a realization of at least the following 
objectives of secondary education: health, worthy home mem¬ 
bership, vocation, citizenship, the worthy use of leisure, and 
ethical character. For a full discussion of these values and 
other helpful suggestions bearing upon the administration 
and teaching of science in the high school, principals and 
teachers are referred to the Report of the Commission on 
the Reorganization of Science in Secondary Schools, Bulle¬ 
tin, 1920, No. 26. The general aim of high school science 
instruction may be stated as follows: “To give acquaintance 
with the natural world to the end of utilizing its materials 
and forces in the interest of human life. ’ ’ * 

The courses in Natural and Physical Sciences which are 
authorized by the State Board are: 

General Science 

Civic Science in the Home 

Civic Science in the Community 

Geography 

Biology 

Chemistry 

Physics. 

While some practical demonstration work is essential to 
successful instruction in all sciences, the four sciences named 
first above are not in a strict sense of the term laboratory 
sciences. These are information courses wTiich REQUIRE 
laboratory illustrations, but they contribute little to scientific 
method. 

None of the courses in science should be given without 
laboratory equipment suggested in the Science Pamphlet ap¬ 
proved by the State Department of Education. This pam¬ 
phlet also makes helpful suggestions as to notebook work, 
and books and magazines to read. Pages 19-22 of Reorgani¬ 
zation of Science in Secondary Schools give the following 
general helpful suggestions: 

“The fact that laboratory work in general has not accom¬ 
plished the results expected indicates the needs for reorgani¬ 
zation of the method and content of laboratory work. A 
few common causes of disappointment are: 

*Ohio High School Standards, Page 85. 



99 


“(1) Experiments are too frequently devised to check up 
and prove generalizations or laws the truth of which the 
pupil already perceives. 

“ (2) Experiments often repeat work described in the text 
in such a way that the outcome is uninteresting and of little 
value. 

“(3) The data collected in many experiments are an end 
in themselves. There is no further use for them, and hence 
they have no significance for the pupil. Such ‘busy work’ 
serves no worthy purpose. 

“ (4) Many experiments are too minutely quantitative and 
call for refinements beyond the need or appreciation of sec¬ 
ondary school pupils. 

“Too frequently the laboratory and class room, sometimes 
improperly called ‘lecture room,’ are separate not only phys¬ 
ically but intellectually. 

“The laboratory should be a place where the pupil puts 
questions to nature, observes accurately, and deduces con¬ 
clusions logically, not a place where directions are followed 
biiiiuiy ana meaningless results obtained. The value of in¬ 
dividual laboratory work has been seriously injured by re¬ 
quiring each pupil to do exactly the same experiment as 
every other pupil and do it in as nearly the same time and 
same way as possible. The spirit of the project method 
should vitalize the experimental work. There will always 
be some pupils who should modify the work to meet their 
special needs or interests. Such differentiation should be 
encouraged and lists of alternative work should be available 
to utilize individual interests and inclinations. 

“Improvement of laboratory practice will result in less 
cumbersome forms of note taking and of notebook making. 
The experiment is not designed for the sake of a notebook 
record. A summary of results which can be used in inter¬ 
preting the work done should be made and pupils should 
be allowed much freedom in the precise manner in which 
the record is made. They should record importance and sig¬ 
nificant facts, and the record should be clear and complete. 


Laboratory 

Procedure 


100 


Laboratory 

Procedure 


f 

That is, the laboratory is a ‘work place,’ and records should 
be simple and direct accounts of the real and vital work that 
has been done. 

“The adoption of the problem-project-topic method of 
science teaching will lead to a considerable change in the 
purpose and use of the recitation period. The ‘hearing of 
lessons/ memoriter repetition of facts and principles 
gleaned from the textbook, the more or less discontinuous 
dialogues between teacher and individual pupil should give 
place to a real class discussion in which ail take an active 
part in contributing, organizing, and using the information 
dealt with. In such discussions the teacher serves to direct, 
stimulate, and advise. There should be a maximum oppor¬ 
tunity for self-expression in the immediate problem. 

“In the recitation period the skillful teacher will develop 
and arouse interest, furnish the necessary background, and 
direct the class in its search for answers to a vital problem. 
In the development of such work the demonstration experi¬ 
ment plays an important part. Such experiments need not 
be spectacular and sensational, but the unexpected may well 
be utilized to arouse interest and raise questions that the 
teacher wants raised as fundamental to the initiation of a 
class problem. In the over-emphasis on individual labora¬ 
tory work, the value of demonstration experiments has been 
minimized. Such demonstrations, besides being interest pro¬ 
voking, have many of the merits of individual efforts without 
the confusion due to poor manipulation or the failure to 
observe the most important aspects of the experiment. These 
may serve the class as examples of the proper way of work¬ 
ing, of manipulating apparatus, of noting results, and of 
drawing inferences. Pupils should be encouraged to assist 
in performing demonstration experiments. 

“The recitation is often the center from which other class 
activities radiate. It focuses the work done in the laboratory, 
at home, in the library, and in excursions. To it all con¬ 
tributions are brought and offered for the consideration of 
the entire class. The need of textbooks is constant but 
usually no single textbook can serve for all the needs of an 
actively working class. A better plan often is to provide 


101 


several copies of the more important texts and a number 
of reference books to which assignment may be made. It 
is extremely important that such assignments should be def¬ 
inite and clear to the pupil. Few things are more discour¬ 
aging to the pupil or more destructive of his interest than 
to be given hazy assignments, and to feel that neither he 
nor the teacher knows exactly what is expected. 

“It is not to be supposed that all pupils will be equally 
interested in a given topic, but if the interest of the ma¬ 
jority cannot be aroused the validity of the topic should be 
examined. On the other hand individuals who have little 
interest or in whom no interest can be aroused, or those 
who have a very special interest, may often be encouraged 
to pursue individual problems of their own and to report 
their work to the whole class. Such problems encourage 
initiative and individual responsibility. The results of 
such work should be interesting to the class as a whole, and 
reports to the class by all pupils should be a regular part of 
recitation work. All pupils should be encouraged to under¬ 
take some individual problems of their own choosing. 

“At many points in the above discussion the importance 
of cooperation between pupils and teacher has been suggested. 
It is vital to success in teaching, and especially in teaching 
by the problem method. How true it is that in most classes 
we find the teacher alone active, the class passive, the teacher 
dominant and aggressive, the class repressed, and attentive 
in only a receptive, not in a cooperative sense. The respon¬ 
sibility for this rests squarely upon the teachers whose meth¬ 
ods have resulted in this type of practice. 

“Although implied in several preceding statements, the 
need of home and community cooperation with the science 
work of the school should be specifically mentioned. In¬ 
deed, the kind of science teaching for which this whole report 
argues cannot be developed except through constant use of 
the manifestations of science in the work in which men and 
women are regularly engaged. It will appear later in the 
outlines of courses that science in secondary schools finds 
its proper basis in personal, home and community life and 
needs. Therefore when teachers and pupils ask to visit a 


Classroom 

Procedure 


Cooperation 


102 


Science 

Constants 


farm, orchard, a shop, a flour mill, saw mill, or manufactur¬ 
ing plant, the business men concerned should be informed of 
the ways in which these visits contribute to the courses in 
science, to the end that they may understand that they are 
helping in the work of education. Also, it may properly 
be the function of the teacher and the class to collect desired 
information or conduct experiments which are related to 
the business concerned, and are desired by those engaged 
in this business. 

“Any device, plan, or method that will build up helpful 
cooperation between the home, school, and the community 
should be encouraged. Among the topics that call for just 
this kind of cooperation are the following: Home gardens; 
community extermination of flies and mosquitoes; insects 
injurious to shade trees and agriculture; protection and 
feeding of useful birds; care of the water supply; pro¬ 
tection from sewerage contamination; community cleanliness; 
development and care of public parks; health in local in¬ 
dustrial plants; and any other topics which inhere in or arise 
from the elementary study of general science, biology, chem¬ 
istry, and physics.” 

From the standpoint of the welfare of society, it is not 
important that a relatively large number of individuals be 
thoroughly acquainted with the science of Chemistry and 
Physics. If a relatively small number of specialists have 
this accurate and detailed knowledge, these can adequately 
serve society’s needs. It is important, however, that every 
individual be acquainted with the natural world to a suffi¬ 
cient extent to utilize its materials and forces in the interest 
of human life. A proper study of general science and biol¬ 
ogy w r ill so acquaint a pupil with his natural environment that 
he will be able to understand and interpret nature’s materials 
and forces in a general way for his own and society’s good. 
In short, all high school pupils should be required to study 
general science* and biology; not all pupils should be required 
to study chemistry or physics. Only the larger, better or¬ 
ganized high schools which can purchase a minimum of four 

*A small high school which cannot afford to buy more than $50.00 
worth of equipment and employ a trained science teacher should us'e 
Civic Science in the Home and Civic Science in the Community in place 
of General Science and Biology. 




103 


or five hundred dollars worth of laboratory equipment and 
employ teachers with special and adequate science training 
should attempt to offer courses in chemistry and physics, and 
pupils should be allowed some choice as to whether or not 
they take these courses. 

The science sequence recommended by the Committee on 
the Reorganization of Science is: 

General Science 
Biology 
Chemistry 
Physics. 

General Science or Civic Science in the Home should be 
required of all eighth grade pupils. The two Civic Sciences 
(either or both) should be taught in only the small schools 
which are not in a position to spend more than $50.00 for 
apparatus for offering the eighth and ninth grade science 
courses, and which have not enough high school teachers to 
permit double or hour periods to be devoted to science in¬ 
struction. AVhile the two Civic Sciences are excellent texts, 
neither of them offers as full and as well organized material 
for a first year course, as Caldwell and Eikenberry’s General 
Science offers. 

CIVIC SCIENCES: 

While Civic Science in the Home is well adapted for use 
in rural high schools and high schools in communities of 2,000 
population or less, Civic Science in the Community is better 
adapted for use in high schools located in industrial centers. 
Where either or both of the Civic Sciences are offered, if 
a few experiments which require commercial electricity or 
gas are omitted, the equipment described in the Science 
Pamphlet under Civic Science and which costs about fifty 
dollars will be a satisfactory minimum for either text or both 
texts either for demonstration experiments by the instructor 
or by small groups of the class. If daily forty or forty-five 
minute recitations are devoted to instruction in either of these 
sciences a credit of .7 of a unit will be given for the comple¬ 
tion of either, provided all experiments except those requiring 
commercial electricity and gas are performed. The method 
suggestions under General Science apply to the Civic Sciences 
also. 


Science 

Sequence 


Where 


Apparatus 

Necessary 


104 


Credit 


Apparatus 

Necessary 


Notes 


Length of 
Periods 


Topics 


GENERAL SCIENCE: 

In all high schools which have more than four full-time 
teachers, General Science should be required of all eighth 
grade pupils. If a credit unit is earned for a school year of 
work in General Science, there must be a minimum of 280 
minutes a week for thirty-six weeks devoted to instruction 
in General Science; all of the sixty-eight problems given in 
the Caldwell, Eikenberry, Glenn Elements of General Sci¬ 
ence Laboratory Manual must be worked out by each class; 
notebooks must be kept; and sufficient apparatus for per¬ 
forming all experiments indicated in the manual must be 
made available. In a high school where there is adequate 
chemistry and physics apparatus, it will be necessary to buy 
very little special’ General Science apparatus. In the ap¬ 
pendix of the manual and in the pamphlet giving laboratory 
lists suggested by the State Department of Education, all ap¬ 
paratus for performing all experiments given in the adopted 
text is listed. To buy all of this apparatus from laboratory 
supply companies will cost about $250.00. If the teacher 
is resourceful and will use material which may be secured 
from the school, home, industrial, commercial, and natural 
environment, and will assign as projects the making of home¬ 
made apparatus, the apparatus which must be bought from 
a laboratory supply company may be reduced to a minimum 
of about $55.00. This minimum list is given in the State 
list, and is followed by a complete list. It must not be over¬ 
looked that all sixty-eight problems must be solved and ap¬ 
paratus for their solution must be made available if full 
credit is to be given. 

Brief notes with correct diagrams should be kept in a 
special notebook by each pupil. Occasionally a more ex¬ 
tended written report will be necessary. 

Sixty-minute laboratory periods are usually more satisfac¬ 
tory than longer ones for eighth grade pupils. While three 
forty-minute and two eighty-minute periods devoted to Gen¬ 
eral Science instruction weekly will be accepted, five sixty- 
minute periods are recommended. 

The topic or problem or project method of instruction in 
General Science is recommended. In organizing teaching 


105 


material, the topic should be the large unit to which many 
specific pieces of work are related. 

A combination of class presentations of out-of-school ex¬ 
periences, of individual projects or problems, and of teacher- 
and-pupil demonstrations is desirable. Desk demonstrations 
by the teacher or by selected groups of pupils constitute a 
satisfactory way in which to present an experiment to the 
class for observation. 

Magazine articles which deal with current use of science 
and which appear in such magazines as the Popular Science 
Monthly and the Scientific American should be used. Ref¬ 
erence books on science should be available and should be 
used. Many charts, maps and catalogs, which constitute 
valuable teaching material and which may be had for the 
asking, may be secured from commercial and industrial firms 
and other sources. References should be specific. 

Well planned and directed excursions are valuable teach¬ 
ing aids if their results are used later. 

Every general science pupil should own and use the El¬ 
ements of General Science Laboratory Problems, list price 
72 cents. The use of this manual is absolutely essential to 
securing satisfactory results in general science instruction. 
At the beginning of each chapter of the adopted text in 
general science will be found “Questions for Discussion,” 
an intelligent use of which will greatly aid the teacher in 
her instruction. 

BIOLOGY: 

In all high schools with more than four full-time teachers 
Biology should be required of all ninth grade pupils. In 
smaller high schools one of the Civic Sciences may be sub¬ 
stituted. 

The specific aims of high school Biology instruction should 
be: 

“(1) The World War has emphasized health as a basic 
end of education. Since much of biology deals directly with 
problems of health, the course in biology must accept efficient 
health instruction as one of its chief and specific ends. 

“ (2) The biological sciences should develop the pupil’s 
purposeful interest in the life of his environment by giving 


References 


Excursions 


Manual 


General 

Statement 


Aims 


106 


Methods 


a first-hand acquaintance with plant and animal neighbors. 

“ (3) They should emphasize some of the most important 
applications of biological science to human activities and to 
general and individual human welfare, and especially should 
familiarize the pupil with the structure and functions of his 
own body, to the end that he may know why he must live 
healthfully in order to live happily and usefully. 

“(4) They should train the pupil to observe life phe¬ 
nomena accurately and to form logical conclusions through 
the solution of problems and through projects essential to the 
productive work of agriculture, gardening, etc. 

“(5) They should enrich the life of the pupil through 
the aesthetic appeal of plants and animals studied, to the 
end that he may appreciate and enjoy nature. 

“(6) They should demonstrate to the pupil the value of 
intensive study of biological science as a means through 
which scientific progress is attained. In view of what science 
has meant to our present day civilization and in view of 
the measure in which the methods and results of scientific in¬ 
vestigation are today reflected in intelligent thought and 
intelligent action, the need of the life sciences in the educa¬ 
tion of modern citizens cannot be ignored.”* 

Some suggestions as to the method of procedure in biology 
instruction are: 

“ Observations, projects, experiments, excursions, individ¬ 
ual reports upon significant topics, textbook assignments, 
quizzes, and conferences offer a rich and varied choice of 
methods of work. Each teacher should use the methods best 
adapted to his students and to the environment of the school 
in which he is teaching. Biology lends itself readily to ths 
topic-project-problem method of teaching, since centralizing 
themes are abundant. 

“In field or museum excursions the teacher should know 
in advance the material available and the use to be made of 
it. Field trips are often merely out-of-door excursions. 
They should be definite and must be used in later work. 

“Laboratory work should be planned so carefully that 
time is not wasted in detailed microscopic work, in experi¬ 
ments which cannot be understood, and in elaborate draw- 


*Pages 30-31, Bulletin, 1920, No. 26. 





107 


ings to keep the children occupied until the end of the period. 
Information should be freely and interestingly given by 
the teacher to stimulate the student to seek more knowledge 
at first-hand. Laboratory work should usually precede text¬ 
book assignments or library references, but should follow 
when very difficult experiments are to be undertaken. 
Since most high school students do not know how to use 
books effectively, these assignments and references should 
be very definite. A rich fund of collateral reading regard¬ 
ing plants and animals should always be available. 

“Experiments, results, conclusions, observations and draw¬ 
ings should be accurately recorded. Neatness in these rec¬ 
ords is desirable, but this should not be exalted above think¬ 
ing and understanding. Careful labeling of drawings is 
important; careless spelling and ungrammatical sentences 
should not be tolerated. 

“The laboratorj’ method in science was such an emanci¬ 
pation from the old-time bookish slavery of prelaboratory 
days that many teachers have been inclined to overdo it and 
to subject themselves to a new slavery. It should never be 
forgotten that the laboratory is merely a means to an end. 
The dominant aim in all laboratory instruction should be 
to develop a consistent chain of significant ideas to which 
the laboratory may serve to give concrete experience and 
instruction. The primary question is not what plant or an¬ 
imal types may be taken up in the laboratory, but what ideas 
may best be developed in the laboratory. 

“Too often the study of plant or animal takes the easiest 
rather than the most illuminating path. It is easy, for in¬ 
stance, particularly with a large class of restless pupils who 
apparently need to be kept in a condition of uniform occu¬ 
pation, to kill a supply of plants or animals, preferably as 
nearly alike as possible, and set the pupils to work draw¬ 
ing the remains. This method is often supplemented by a 
series of questions designed to keep the students busy a 
while longer. These methods are usually unprofitable. 

“The ideal laboratory is only a reasonably good substi¬ 
tute for out-of-doors. Any course in biology, when confined 
within four walls wholly, even if these walls be those of a 
modern, well-equipped laboratory, is in some measure a fail- 


s 


108 


* 


Methods 


Manual 


Notebooks 


Apparatus 


Credit 


4 


ure. Living things, to be appreciated and interpreted cor¬ 
rectly, must be seen and studied alive, if possible in the open, 
where they will be encountered in life. The study of a plant 
or animal in the place in which it lives successfully is just 
as important as the study of its shape or function. Ex¬ 
perience has shown that young students usually lose enthu¬ 
siasm for biology study if they constantly work with pre¬ 
served materials. In general, it is wise to study plant and 
animal material common in the environment. Right mental 
processes of observation and reasoning are best developed 
in connection with those real biological situations which are 
encountered in ordinary affairs and in ordinary needs.”* 

The State adopted text in biology is in accord with these 
aims and suggestions as to method. 

No biology class will do satisfactory work without the 
Biology Manual. Each pupil in biology should own and use 
his own Biology Manual, list price sixty cents. This manual 
is published by Allyn and Bacon. 

Individual notebooks records should be kept by each pupil 
and should cover laboratory studies and reports of field 
trips. This notebook should contain at the end of the year 
from twenty-five to thirty accurately drawn and labeled 
plates. 

Five sixty-minute periods or three forty-five and two nine¬ 
ty-minute periods a week devoted to biology instruction 
throughout a thirty-six weeks’ school year will be required 
of schools which earn a credit unit in biology. Pupils in 
these schools will be required to keep notebooks and to do 
laboratory work as indicated by the manual. 

, For the instructor to perform necessary demonstration ex¬ 
periments and to provide proper teaching material, all of 
the apparatus named in the Science Apparatus Pamphlet, 
except microscope FF8, price $128.50, will be needed. This 
includes all apparatus included under required, additional 
recommended, and chemical. This apparatus will cost about 
$200.00. To provide each two biology pupils with a table 
and necessary individual apparatus for performing all ex¬ 
periments indicated would cost for a class of twenty pupils 
more than a thousand dollars. While this is desirable, it will 
not be required for a credit unit. If the apparatus listed in 


109 


the pamphlet, omitting the FF8 microscope, is provided, a 
credit unit will be allowed, provided other requirements are 
met. 

GEOGRAPHY: 

Physical-Economic-Regional Geography, by Chamberlain, 
is recommended for ninth grade pupils taking the General 
Curriculum in four-year high schools, and for tenth grade 
pupils taking the General Curriculum in three-year high 
schools. In this book Physical Geography is presented as the 
necessary foundation. The work is fully humanized and many 
points which are presented in the ordinary course in Physical 
Geography are omitted. In this course the pupil should be led 
to study geographic forms and processes not as things and 
conditions apart from human affairs, but rather in their rela¬ 
tions to the life of man. Through a study of the Economic 
section, pupils should be led to an understanding of indus¬ 
trial and commercial conditions as applied to world commerce. 
In the Regional Section an intensive study of geography of 
the United States should be given. If five periods a week 
for thirty-six weeks are devoted to instruction in this course, 
a credit unit will be given if the text is completed. This 
text is published by J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, Pa. 

CHEMISTRY: 

When both chemistry and physics are offered in a high 
school, the chemistry should precede the physics. Chemistry 
should not be required of all high school pupils. It is sug¬ 
gested as an elective study in the tenth grade of Gen¬ 
eral and Vocational four-year curriculums. Only schools 
which are in a position to provide adequate equipment, a 
competent teacher, and to devote a minimum of three hundred 
minutes a week to instruction in chemistry should offer it. 
The author of the adopted text recommends that each pupil 
perform at least forty experiments. Thirty-five experiments 
constitute a minimum for a credit unit. These thirty-five 
which are designated by the author are here given by 
number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 
21, 22, 25, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 46, 48, 49, 52, 58, 59, 


Geography 


Minimum 

Experiments 


* Pages 34-35, Bulletin, 1920, No. 26. 




110 


* Chemistry 
Class 
Periods 


Credit 

Unit 


Manual 


Aims 


60, 61, 68, 69, 72, 73, and 74. For suggestions as to laboratory 
tables, equipment, and apparatus, principals are referred to 
the Science Apparatus pamphlet. For a chemistry class of 
twenty pupils the cost of apparatus and materials will be 


as follows: 

Individual apparatus (one set for each 

two pupils).$ 13.57 

General apparatus for twenty pupils .... 75.51 

Minimum materials for thirty-five experiments . 87.53 

Teachers’ demonstration apparatus needed 

(not required). 24.46 


Total ..$323.20 


Three hundred minutes a week devoted to chemistry in¬ 
struction is required for a full unit. This may be given 
in five sixty-minute periods or in three forty-five minute 
and two ninety-minute periods. The five sixty-minute periods 
are recommended. 

To sum up credit unit requirements in chemistry: Per¬ 
formance of thirty-five designated experiments, three hundred 
minutes per week devoted to instruction, adequate laboratory 
apparatus and equipment for the above named experiments. 

All teachers of Practical Chemistry should own and use 
“Teacher’s Manual for Practical Chemistry.” 

Some suggestions as to aims of and methods in high school 
chemistry courses are given below: 

“1. To give an understanding of the significance and im¬ 
portance of chemistry in our national life. The services of 
chemistry to industry, to medicine, to home life, to agri¬ 
culture, and to the welfare of the nation, should be under¬ 
stood in an elementary way. 

“2. To develop those specific interests, habits, and abil¬ 
ities to which all science study should contribute. 

The powers of observation, discrimination, interpreta¬ 
tion, and deduction are constantly called for in chemistry 
and are so used in this subject as to require a high type of 
abstract thinking. The principles and generalizations of 
chemistry are often difficult. For this reason chemistry 
should occur in the third or fourth year of the high school. 






Ill 


3. To build upon the earlier science courses, and knit 
together previous science work by supplying knowledge fun¬ 
damental to all science. Coming after at least a year of 
general science, and usually also a year of biological science, 
the work in chemistry should further use these sciences. It 
should furnish a new viewpoint for the organization of science 
materials, and develop wider and more satisfactory unifying 
and controlling principles. By this means the desirable ele¬ 
ment of continuity in the science course will be secured. 

“4 To give information of definite service to home and 
daily life. This aim has been the chief influence in reorgan¬ 
izing high school chemistry courses, and will undoubtedly 
produce further changes. The criterion of usefulness, as 
a basis for the selection of subject matter, should not be 
limited to the immediately useful or practical in a narrow 
sense, but should be so interpreted as to include all topics 
which make for a better understanding of, and a keener 
insight into, the conditions, institutions, and demands of 
modern life. 

“5. To help pupils to discover whether they have apti¬ 
tudes for further work in pure or applied science, and to 
induce pupils having such aptitudes to enter the university 
or technical school, there to continue their science studies. 

‘ ‘ Chemistry Methods: 

‘‘Some motive, some compelling desire to know, must ac¬ 
tuate the pupil in any study which is really educative. 
Progress in chemistry, therefore, is dependent upon a spe¬ 
cific purpose, a conscious need to learn the facts and their 
underlying causes or explanation. The educational value of 
any problem depends upon the degree to which the pupil 
makes it his own and identifies himself with it, rather than 
upon its concreteness, or the useful applications involved, 
or the familiar associations connecting it with other problems, 
important as these considerations are. The basis for organ¬ 
izing a course in chemistry should lie in the changing 
character of the pupil’s interest and the increased intensity 
of his needs as a result of his growing abilities and of his 
increased power to direct and use them. A topic in chem¬ 
istry which would have seemed abstruse and uninteresting 
a year or even a few months earlier may suddenly become 


Aims 


General 

Methods 


112 


Laboratory 

Methods 


a real problem to the pupil. Such questions as what the 
constitution of things really is, what properties the atoms 
possess, or why the volumes of gases have such simple re¬ 
lations to one another, may become problems of real sig¬ 
nificance to the pupil. Ultimate causes and reasons appeal 
to the adolescent pupil. Problems having to do with home, 
farm, local * industries, the civic and the national welfare, 
are limited only by the time and energy available for their 
pursuit. 

“The relation between class and laboratory work is a 
most important problem for the chemistry teacher. Un¬ 
fortunately, theory and practice have not been properly re¬ 
lated. Some of the reasons for this situation are: 

(a) It is difficult to correlate recitation and experiment. 
One lags behind the other. The remedy is a greater flexi¬ 
bility in the program, so that the time may be used for 
either purpose as needed. There is a growing tendency to 
make all periods of a uniform, sixty-minute length instead 
of forty or forty-five minutes on some days and eighty and 
ninety minutes on other days. This change helps to make 
possible a closer correlation between experiments and the 
discussion of them. 

(b) Experiments often fail of their object because of in¬ 
sufficient directions, failure to provide needful data, or lack 
of a definite and clear purpose. This needful information 
must be supplied, but in such a way as to stimulate in¬ 
terest and raise questions to be answered by the experiment 
itself. Some teachers prefer to take the first few minutes of 
each laboratory exercise in talking over the work, suggest¬ 
ing important questions, pointing out difficulties, and giving 
necessary cautions. It might be well to embody more of 
the information usually supplied by the text in the lab¬ 
oratory directions themselves, so that they would be thought- 
producing and stimulating rather than simple directions for 
manipulation and observation. 

(c) Too many experiments involve repetition of work de¬ 
scribed in the text or have no outcome beyond the mere 
doing and writing in the notebook. Unless the experiments 
contribute to the recitations and provide data or informa¬ 
tion which is used, they are largely a waste of time. 


113 


Laboratory experiments, to accomplish their purpose, 
must concern a problem or a question which the pupil seeks 
to answer because he is interested in doing so. The titles 
of experiments can often be worded so that they become 
suggestive by stating them in problem or question form. For 
example, instead of the title ‘ Mordant dyeing/ a better one 
would be, ‘Why are mordants used in dyeing?’ Or in place of 

Equivalent weight of magnesium, ’ substitute ‘ How much 
magnesium is needed to produce a gram of hydrogen ? ’ Or, 
for Analysis of ammonia ’ substitute, ‘ WFat is the most 
economical brand of household ammonia to purchase?’ The 
mere rewording of a title itself is not enough. The ques¬ 
tion itself must be a vital one to the pupil either through 
his own independent thought or as a result of the stimu¬ 
lating influence of the class discussion. 

“Flexibility in the keeping of notebooks is desirable, pro¬ 
vided that the essential facts and conclusions are always in¬ 
cluded. The notes should usually include a clear statement 
of the problem in hand; a description of the method of 
procedure, making use of a diagram of such apparatus as 
may have been used; and a statement of results and con¬ 
clusions, with answers to any specific questions which have 
arisen. If the pupil’s notes cover this ground, they should 
be accepted, and he should be encouraged to work out any 
plan of his own for the improvement of his notebook. To 
require all to use exactly the same plan may make the 
checking of notebooks more easy and their appearance more 
satisfactory, but it stifles the pupil’s originality and pre¬ 
vents him from discovering and correcting his own faults 
in this direction. 

“The notebook has often been a fetish with chemistry 
teachers, and time has been demanded for making a record 
which, while beautiful in appearance and completeness, is 
yet full of needless repetition and useless detail. The note¬ 
book should not destroy the interest attached to an experi¬ 
ment, for the experiment is not for the notebook but for 
the pupils’ clearer understanding of important chemical facts. 
Only when properly used will the notebook enhance the 
value of laboratory work. 

“The teacher in the laboratory should not set up appa¬ 
ratus, weigh out materials, or attend to other purely 


Laboratory 

Methods 


114 


Laboratory 

Methods 


manual matters, which in most cases should be done by the 
pupils. The teacher should see that pupils are trained to 
observe accurately, to draw correct inferences, to relate their 
conclusions to the facts of previous experience in and out 
of school, and to find the answers to questions and problems 
brought out. 

“It is proper that the teacher should perform laboratory 
demonstrations that are too difficult, too costly in materials, 
or too long for student assignment. These should be done 
with model technique, for the pupils will imitate the teacher’s 
methods. They should be recorded in the student’s labora¬ 
tory notebook just as any other experiment, but with the 
notation ‘performed by the instructor.’ 

“ (3) Aids to the chemistry teachers—(a) Reference books 
and magazines. A part of the requisite equipment of every 
chemistry department is a well chosen set of reference books, 
available and in constant use. Each pupil will need a text¬ 
book as chief reference book, but he should find it necessary 
to use additional books. There should be provided duplicate 
copies of the better textbooks, other books on special sub¬ 
jects, articles, newspaper clippings, etc. These books are 
necessary in order that the pupil may investigate all the 
questions that arise. He will profit by the training which 
comes from learning how to find the answers to his ques¬ 
tions from many sources of information. These books should 
provide entertaining reading by which the pupil’s interest 
in things chemical may be stimulated and developed. 

“(b) Individual topics and reports. The study of special 
topics and reports upon them by individual members should 
be a regular feature of the class work. Pupils should be 
encouraged along the line of their special interests, and lists 
of topics should be suggested by the teacher from time to 
time. By this plan individual initiative and ability may be 
given encouragement and the whole class stimulated. 

“(c) Optional experiments. The pupil should be given en¬ 
couragement to bring in materials to test in various ways 
and, whenever time permits, to perform additional experi¬ 
ments, the results of which may be reported to the class. 
In the chemistry laboratory it is not necessary or desirable 
that all pupils be always at work on the same experiment. 
Even if the experiment is essentially the same, a variety 


115 


of materials maj^ often be used, and each pupil may con¬ 
tribute to the general result. For example, if colored cotton 
cloth is to be bleached by chloride of lime, let the pupils 
bring in samples from home so that a variety of colors may' 
be tried out; or, if the presence of coal-tar dyes is to be tested 
in candy or food products, each pupil should be responsible 
for his own materials. In this way the work of the class 
will have a breadth and scope which will make the results 
more significant. 

“(d) The review. In chemistry the number of detailed 
facts is so great, and the application of its principles so 
wide, that from time to time a definite plan for insuring 
proper organization of ideas is needed. These need not be 
formal reviews and tests, though such have their place, but 
they should always be exact and comprehensive. Quizzes 
should frequently follow excursions or a series of laboratory 
experiments upon some central topic of study. These should 
be conducted in such a way as to lead pupils to organize 
knowledge for themselves rather than to force upon them a 
classification of the material that does not develop from their 
own work. 

“(e) Excursions. Many topics in chemistry should be 
initiated or supplemented by an excursion to a factory or 
industrial plant where the operations may be viewed at first 
hand. If such excursions are to be really profitable, there 
must be a very definite plan covering the things to be seen. 
The first recitation after such an excursion should be de¬ 
voted to answering questions suggested by what has been 
seen and to defining further studies based upon these ob¬ 
servations. The great value of the excursion lies in the 
opportunity to give the pupil a vivid conception of the 
practicability of chemical knowledge and to make him see 
that there is a definite relation between the test tubes and 
beakers of the laboratory and the vats, concentrators, and 
furnaces of the factory. 

“(f) Science clubs. Whenever the number of students 
taking chemistry is sufficient to warrant the formation of 
a chemical club, this is desirable. The members of the 
chemistry class should be encouraged to join or organize 
a science club and to make it an attractive feature of the 
school life. In small schools a science section should be a; part 


Laboratory 

Methods 


/ 


General 

Statement 


116 

p 

of a literary or debating society, thus widening the interests 
and opportunity for the exercise of individual interest and 
served by such an organization. Such a club provides motive 
effort, and the interest of the whole school may be extended 
through it. ’ ’ # 

PHYSICS: 

Where both chemistry and physics are offered in a high 
school physics should follow chemistry. It should not 
be required of all pupils, but is suggested as an elective 
study in the eleventh grade of the General and Vocational 
curriculums of four-year high schools. Only schools that 
are in position to employ a competent physics teacher, de¬ 
vote three hundred minutes a week to physics instruction, 
and provide suitable laboratory space and apparatus should 
offer a course in physics. The performance of a minimum 
of thirty experiments as indicated in Apparatus pamphlet 
is required for a credit unit in physics. Notebooks should 
be kept. It will cost more than two hundred dollars to pro¬ 
vide adequate apparatus for physics courses. Suggestions as 
to needed apparatus are given in the Science Apparatus 
pamphlet. Teachers of physics should own and use the 
Teacher’s Manual to accompany Black and Davis’ Practical 
Physics. Three hundred minutes per week devoted to physics 
instruction will be required for a credit unit. Either five 
sixty-minute or three single and two double periods are ac¬ 
ceptable. Five sixty-minute periods will probably prove 
more satisfactory. To sum up, the requirements for a credit 
unit in physics are: Perform a minimum of thirty experi¬ 
ments with adequate apparatus, devote three hundred minutes 
a week to physics instruction, keep notebooks. 

Suggestions as to aims of and methods in physics instruc¬ 
tion follow: 

“Physics, in common with the other science courses in 
secondary education, should be directed so far as possible 
to the realization of the seven main objectives of education 
defined by the Commission on the Reorganization of Second¬ 
ary Education to be: Health, command of fundamental proc¬ 
esses, worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy 
use of leisure, and ethical character. To realize these ob- 


*Pages 36-41, Bulletin, 1920, No. 26. 




117 


jectives, education must develop certain specific interests, 
ideals, habits, and powers, as well as an essential body of 
knowledge. 

“Among the habits and abilities which should be developed Aims 
in all science teaching and which should be emphasized in 
physics instruction, the following may be enumerated: 

“(1) Observing accurately significant facts and phenom¬ 
ena, and at the same time neglecting distractions and de¬ 
tails that have no direct relation to the problem in hand. 

“(2) Developing a methodical plan of attack before be¬ 
ginning an experiment or set of observations. 

“(3) Using eyes, ears, and hands before consulting books, 
when knowledge of phenomena is sought. 

“(4) Maintaining system, order, and neatness in the ar¬ 
rangement of apparatus and appliances for the observational 
and experimental work. 

“(5) Using care and intelligence in the manipulation of 
tools and apparatus, endeavoring to acquire a good technique. 

“(6) Making measurements where quantitative knowledge 
is required, always carefully, intelligently, and as accurately 
as is demanded by the nature of the knowledge sought, but 
not more so. 

“(7) Making and recording calculations accurately and 
rapidly, using practical aids in computation such as log¬ 
arithms, multiplication tables, and the slide rule. 

“(8) Maintaining accuracy and methodical procedure in 
arranging and tabulating the data obtained from experiments 
and observations. 

“Physics must teach its pupils to consider common physi¬ 
cal phenomena carefully and to interpret and classify ob¬ 
servations, to the end that the knowledge gained may become 
orderly in arrangement. For example, if a flamelike lu¬ 
minosity is observed, is it due to combustion of gases, or to 
incandescence caused by the passage of an electric current, 
or to electro-static discharge, or to phosphorescence? When 
we seek to explain it we are really referring it to its proper 
class and attributing to it the properties that we know be¬ 
long to others of the same class. We are trying to record, 
predict, or indicate its properties by placing it first in a 
large class, then in a smaller class within the larger, and so 


Methods 


Correlation 


Unit of 
Instruction 


Class 

Conference 


118 

on, until we get it into the smallest class we know. We then 
know something about its causes and effects because we 
know it to be like others in that class whose properties are 
already familiar. By practice in making such interpreta¬ 
tions, certain habits, methods, and ideals as to interpretation 
may be developed. 

“When a project is adopted by the class, initiative on the 
part of the class should be encouraged in the choice of 
methods, under the guidance of the teacher. The socialized 
recitation is of special importance in connection with the 
class project. 

“The three principal methods in use during the past ten 
or fifteen years are the recitation method, the class-demon¬ 
stration method, and the laboratory method. Theoretically, 
these methods were to have been closely connected in the 
treatment of a given portion of the subject matter; but this 
desirable intimate connection or correlation has not been gen¬ 
erally maintained. The laboratory lessons often bear very 
little direct relation to the recitations and class demonstra¬ 
tions. There has been too little experimenting by the teacher 
or by pupils before the class. 

“The unit of instruction, instead of consisting of certain 
sections or pages from the textbook, or of a formal laboratory 
exercise, should consist of a definite question, proposition^ 
problem, or project, set up by the class or by the teacher. 
Such a problem demands for its solution recalling facts 
already known, acquiring new information, formulating and 
testing hypotheses, and reasoning, both inductive and de¬ 
ductive, in order to arrive at correct generalizations and 
conclusions. 

“This method calls for an organization in which informa¬ 
tion, experimental work, and methods of attack, all are organ¬ 
ized with reference to their bearings on the solution of the 
problem. The recitation, the laboratory lesson, and the class 
demonstration should not be discrete and unrelated units. 
Each should have its part in the activities, the gathering 
of information, and the reasoning essential to the conclusion 
reached. 

“The usual formal recitation should be replaced by a 
well-balanced combination of group and individual work. 


119 


In group work the class conference fosters cooperation, in¬ 
vestigation, reciprocal interrogation, open or free for all 
discussion, and the scientific method of study and problem 
solving, as opposed to memoriter repetition. In the class 
conference the teacher selects a topic suggested by one or 
more of the preceding exercises or assignments. By ques¬ 
tions and smaller topic assignments the teacher leads the 
class to summarize the knowledge previously acquired. Ad¬ 
ditional knowledge and experiment are necessary for the 
intelligent understanding of the facts or principle involved 
in the main topic. The pupils are stimulated to set up 
hypotheses, to experiment, and to propose methods for test¬ 
ing out the different suggestions. The experiments and 
tests are made by teacher and pupils at the demonstra¬ 
tion table or in the laboratory. At later conferences the 
final conclusions are reached. They are then applied either 
in securing other knowledge or in verifying and explain¬ 
ing practical applications as observed in the industries or 
elsewhere. Initiative should be given full scope in the class 
conference, but the discussion should be conducted in an 
orderly and effective manner. It may even be well to train 
the pupils in parliamentary rules and to insist on observance 
of those rules in the classroom. The teacher should en¬ 
deavor -to avoid dominating the discussion on the one hand, 
or letting it become aimless and desultory on the other hand. 

“The high school physics laboratory is too often thought 
of as a place in which to ‘verify laws/ to ‘fix principles in 
mind/ to ‘acquire skill in making measurements/ or to 
‘learn to be accurate observers.’ With a project or problem 
as the unit of instruction and its solution as the motive for 
work, the pupil should go to the laboratory to find out by 
experiment some facts that are essential to the solution of 
his problem, and that cannot be obtained at first hand by 
other means. With such a motive he is more nearly in 
the situation of the real scientist who is working on a prob¬ 
lem of original investigation. He is getting real practice 
in the use of the scientific method. The problem or project 
should underlie the ‘laboratory exercise.’ For example, in¬ 
stead of aiming ‘ to determine the specific gravity of a liquid, ’ 
the pupil may be incited to find out whether the milk de- 


Laboratory 

Work 


Notebooks 


120 

livered at his door has probably been watered. This is 
a project of vital interest to the pupil himself and to his 
family at home, and it involves finding the specific gravity 
of milk. Laboratory problems in physics should provide 
direct and obvious connections between what immediately 
precedes and follows. 

4 ‘The following principles with reference to the conduct 
of the physics laboratory work have become fairly well 
standardized, and are recommended as important: 

“(a) The number of laboratory problems per year should 
lie somewhere between thirty and fifty, according to the 
nature of the problems chosen and the circumstances con¬ 
trolling the work. The preference should in general lie 
with the smaller number, thoroughly and intelligently worked 
out and reinforced by frequent, subsequent applications so 
as to insure permanent retention. 

“(b) The schedule for work in physics should provide 
for laboratory periods of from sixty to ninety minutes in 
length. 

“(c) The maximum number of pupils that can be effi¬ 
ciently directed in a physics laboratory division by one teacher 
is twenty-five; better work can be accomplished when the 
maximum is eighteen to twenty. If more than twenty-five 
are working in the laboratory, there should be a competent 
assistant in addition to the teacher. 

“(d) Each pupil should be required to keep a notebook 
record of all his experiments. The notes should be clear, 
concise, and systematically arranged, and should be repeat¬ 
edly utilized in subsequent work. 

“Notebooks should contain a statement of the problem; 
a brief description of the apparatus, materials, and pro¬ 
cedure; tabulations of numerical data, with original calcu¬ 
lations, when calculations are involved; the conclusions 
reached; and a brief statement of such precautions and 
sources of error as it is necessary or profitable to consider. 
Graphs and drawings should be used as means of expres¬ 
sion or interpretation, not as ends in themselves. The use 
of printed forms, where the pupil only fills in the blanks 
with figures and words, should be discouraged as tending to 
inhibit thinking rather than to stimulate it. All notes be- 


121 


longing directly to the laboratory work should be recorded 
in the laboratory at the time of making observations or of 
doing the work. Original notes should be made with such 
method and care that copying of notes will be unnecessary. 

“In the classroom the demonstration experiment with in¬ 
formal comment and running conference should be frequent, 
and formal lecturing the exception. The lecture demonstra¬ 
tion, however, has its undoubted uses in high school physics. 
Accounts of new discoveries in physics, demonstrated by ex¬ 
periments and lantern slides, will present a fascinating and 
effective appeal and furnish strong incentives for study. 
Accounts of the lives and labors of great physicists, especi¬ 
ally of the formative influences and character development 
that contributed to their greatness, serve to arouse human 
interest, crystallize ideals, and motivate effort. The help of 
volunteer pupils should be enlisted in the preparation of the 
demonstration experiments. The demonstration, when given, 
should be a model of clear exposition and experimental 
technic that will challenge admiration, arouse enthusiasm, 
and stimulate imitation. 

“In nearly every community there are opportunities for 
making profitable excursions to places in which the prin¬ 
ciples of physics taught in the school room are applied. The 
teacher should arrange for excursions at such times as best 
fit in with the school instruction. Every available physical 
device in the homes, local stores, shops, factories, water¬ 
works, street railway or electric-lighting power plants, school 
heating and ventilating plant, newspaper-printing plant, tele¬ 
phone exchange, ice-manufacturing and cold-storage plant 
should be used for instruction. Mimeographed instructions 
prepared before an excursion will be of great service. After 
the excursion the things seen and their bearings on other 
work should be thoroughly discussed. In a few cases written 
reports of the excursion should be required, and the best 
of these should be credited as oral or written compositions 

J 

in English classes. 

“During the year each pupil should be assigned one or 
more definite pieces of study to be made from books or 
papers, the study to be organized for presentation before 
the class. Assignments should be specific, giving subject, 


Demonstra¬ 

tions 


Excursions, 

Reports 


Clubs 


References 


Latin 

Values 


122 


properly delimited, and usually the books or papers to be 
consulted, with specific citations. There should always be 
a report in good form made to the teacher, if not to the 
class. 

“The science club, or society, officered and managed by 
pupils under teacher guidance, may prove a stimulus to 
science throughout the school and may become an important 
factor in community life. Physics should join with other 
sciences in the science clubs of small high schools, but in 
some large schools a separate physics club may be desirable. 
Experiments, objects from amateur natural-history collec¬ 
tions, reports on scientific books, and articles from maga¬ 
zines, biographical sketches, and also occasional lectures by 
teachers should compose the programs. 7 ’ * 

Science teachers will find the following references helpful: 

1. Reorganization of Science in Secondary Schools, U. S. 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1920, No. 26. 

2. Twiss, Principles of Science Teaching, Macmillan Com¬ 
pany. 

3. Lloyd and Bigelow, The Teaching of Biology, Longmans, 
Green & Company. 

4. Smith and Hall, The Teaching of Chemistry and 
Physics, Longmans, Green & Company. 

5. School Science and Mathematics, $2.50 per year, 2059 
East 72nd Street, Chicago, Ill. 

Latin : 

No college in South Carolina requires Latin of pupils who 
matriculate as candidates for B.S. degrees. Only six (one 
for men and five for women) colleges in South Carolina 
require Latin of pupils who matriculate as candidates for 
A.B. degrees. Consequently, Latin can hardly justify its 
place in the high school curriculum as a college prepara¬ 
tory subject. If all of the values of Latin study are ana¬ 
lyzed, they will fall in three groups, (1) the practical val¬ 
ues, the use of Latin in explaining Latin derivations, in 
spelling, etc. (2) The disciplinary values, the development 
of the power of careful observation, analysis, reasoning, etc. 
(3) The cultural values, the insight afforded into the civili- 

*Bulietin 1920, No. 26, pages 50-55. 


S 





123 


zation of ancient Rome, the development of a feeling for 
good English, etc. The practice of requiring Latin of all 
pupils in any grade is of doubtful value. In fact, prac¬ 
tice throughout the country indicates that there are some 
pupils in every grade who should not be required to study 
Latin. Every principal and school board should deter¬ 
mine whether or not Latin will contribute more to the prac¬ 
tical, disciplinary, and cultural education of some pupils 
than other subjects which may be offered instead of Latin. 
If the decision is in Latin’s favor, it should be offered in the 
school; otherwise, it should not be offered. 

First Year Latin: 

Completion of Elementary Latin through Page 241 entitles 
a pupil to a credit unit in first year Latin. Usually six or 
eight w r eeks of the second year of work in Latin is required 
to complete this amount of work. If the supplementary 
reading on Pages 243—266 of Elementary Latin is done prop¬ 
erly, it may be offered in lieu of Book four of Caesar. This 
supplementary reading should prove a helpful introduction 
to Cassar. 

The Teacher’s Manual to accompany Smith’s Elementary 
Latin should be used by every teacher. This manual gives 
specific help on each lesson. Teachers may secure this manual 
by having their principals request it of Allyn & Bacon, 611 
Rhodes Building, Atlanta, Ga. Each appendix of the text 
provides useful teaching material which should be utilized. 

The first year of Latin work should give pupils the ability 
to pronounce accurately and to read with facility and intelli¬ 
gence the Latin text of what has been studied. It should give 
them such an accurate knowledge of inflection that they will 
be able, instantly, to recognize forms and their different 
shades of meaning and conversely to give required forms 
without hesitation. The first year of Latin should lead the 
pupil to acquire a working knowledge of the more than 500 
words given in the vocabularies of the lessons required for the 
year, should enable him to understand Latin order, should 
enable him to master the simpler principles of syntax, and 
should lead him to give “true English translations.” Pupils 
should be so thoroughly, and constantly, and rigidly, and 


When to 
Offer Latin 


Credit in 

Beginner's 

Latin 


Manual 


Quality 


Method 


124 

patiently drilled upon the above mentioned requirements 
that their responses to questions based upon these require¬ 
ments will come instantly and accurately. This mastery of 
detail and this exactness of habit cannot be secured without 
effort. Following are some suggestions that may be of help 
to the teacher in realizing results: 

An accurate knowledge of form and facility in using 
forms come only through patient drill. Quality as well as 
quantity counts in first year Latin. 

Adopt the Roman method of pronunciation and stick 
consistently to it. 

Study your assignments. Make them of reasonable length, 
and give definite instructions as to how you wish every lesson 
prepared. Then see to it that every pupil gives you the prep¬ 
aration. 

Require the first four weeks of Latin study to be confined 
to the class recitation period. During these four weeks, do 
not allow pupils to take their books home. Supervise and 
direct their study. Guide them into proper habits of Latin 
study. 

A great deal of the training of the ear should be effected 
through listening to the reading or speaking of the Latin by 
the teacher. Much oral practice not only develops and quick¬ 
ens the ear, but vitalizes the work. Require many vigorous 
oral drill exercises from your pupils. 

Give a part of each recitation to a systematic review of 
work already covered. Make these review drills vigorous 
and ‘ ‘ snappy. ’ ’ 

In translating, observe the Latin order. After the ren¬ 
dering according to the order of the Latin w r ords, idiomatic 
English must be required. Emphasize the importance of the 
choice of proper words. 

Frequently require pupils to write in English easy exer¬ 
cises dictated in Latin by the teacher. Frequently require 
pupils to translate Latin into English from the teacher’s 
reading of the Latin. Require pupils to memorize suitable 
passages of Latin. 

Smith’s Elementary Latin has done much to make Begin¬ 
ner’s Latin a live subject. Pages 267-274 give songs that 
should be committed to memory and sung during the year. 


125 


The English Grammar section, Page 323, should be referred 
to when needed to understand Latin. The pictures and illus¬ 
trations in the text should be understood and should be 
referred to when they will be most helpful to the pupil. In 
each lesson, “What Latin words do the following suggest V’ 
is an exercise that should never be omitted. In each lesson 
the author has worked out many helpful drills and exercises. 
All of his notes, suggestions, drills, and specific directions 
should be used. The author has selected his material so well 
that the teacher cannot afford to omit any of it. 

Second Year Latin: 

Supplementary Reading, Pages 243-266, of Elementary 
Latin, and the first three books of Caesar fulfill the require¬ 
ments for a credit unit of second year Latin. In some schools 
some of this work is extended into the first four or six weeks 
of the third year. Throughout the second year of Latin in¬ 
struction the work in reading should be closely correlated 
with a study of Latin grammar and composition. Some sug¬ 
gestions as to method may prove helpful. 

Pupils should be required to grasp the meaning of the 
Latin sentences which they translate. Sentences should be 
read and understood in the order of the original with full 
appreciation of the force of each word as it comes. The full 
meaning of the passage or sentence translated in the manner 
described above should finally be expressed in clear and 
natural English. 

Study of the vocabulary should be stressed in the ninth 
grade. This is especially true in regard to principal parts 
of verbs. About 300 of these should be written in the Latin 
notebook for special drill. Irregular verb forms should also 
be stressed. 

The teacher should teach her pupils how to prepare their 
reading lessons in Latin. The subject and verb of the prin¬ 
cipal clause and of the subordinate clauses, the grouping of 
words and phrases, and the use of transitional words should 
be explained before the pupil is expected to prepare his les¬ 
sons alone. 

The Latin should be read aloud throughout the year. 


Credit 

in 

Caesar 


Method 


Third Year 
Latin Credit 


Method 


Value 


126 

Due attention should be paid to the history of the times 
studied, and to the geography of the countries studied. Pupils 
should be required to use the maps in Caesar for tracing his 
campaigns. 

There should be constant drill on forms, principle of syn¬ 
tax, and careful analysis of sentences taken from the text 
read. In reading Latin the lesson of the previous day 
should always be read in review. This may be done by one or 
two pupils. 

Third Year Latin : 

Six orations of Cicero correlated with Latin Grammar 
and Composition constitute the third year’s work in Latin, 
which will be credited with one credit unit. 

The tenth grade Latin work should be characterized by 
thorough work in vocabulary, syntax, written translations, 
study of Cicero’s style, Latin prose and sight reading. The 
teacher should see that pupils grasp the meaning of the 
Latin and that they render it in true, natural, and idiomatic 
English. 

There will be constant occasion for drill on forms and prin¬ 
ciples of syntax and careful analysis of sentences occurring 
in the text. Grammar questions should precede or follow 
rather than interrupt the translation. To secure fluency 
and accuracy of translation, there must be constant review 
of the pages read and careful choice of English words. Fre¬ 
quently the teacher should offer her pupils opportunity for 
sight translation, but too difficult Latin must not be used 
for this purpose. The third and fourth orations against 
Cataline may be read at sight. Quite frequently passages of 
Latin should be memorized. 

Fourth Year Latin : 

The practice of offering a fourth year of Latin in most 
high schools is of doubtful value. Only pupils who expect 
to enter Charleston College, Converse College, and Chicora 
College need it for admission. Fourth year Latin is usually 
so poorly taught that it has little practical, disciplinary, or 
cultural value. Usually fourth year Latin classes are so small 
that the per capita cost of Latin instruction in fourth year 
is almost prohibitive. Finally, it usually overcrowds the 


127 


work of some teachers and the pupils who take it to offer 
fourth year Latin. Offered under any of the above named 
handicaps, the value of fourth year Latin courses is question¬ 
able. Fourth year Latin should be offered only when con¬ 
ditions favor it and when there is a specific and justifiable 
demand for it. 

Six books of Virgil’s JEneid constitute the fourth year 
of Latin work. Vocabulary, syntax, written and sight trans¬ 
lations, Greek Mythology, Roman Customs and Religion, the 
Geography of the Mediterranean, scansion, rhythmical read¬ 
ing of hexameter, and accuracy in expressing the Latin 
thought should be stressed in fourth year Latin instruction. 
Some systematic reference work will be necessary to an ade¬ 
quate understanding of this poem, which should be studied 
as a literary masterpiece. A credit unit will be allowed for 
the work outlined for this year of Latin study. 

Latin teachers will find the reading of The Classical 
Journal helpful. The subscription price is $2.50 a year. This 
Journal is published by the University of Chicago Press, 5750 
Ellis Ave., Chicago, Ill. 

Modern Languages: 

The State Board of Education authorizes the teaching of 
French, German and Spanish for two years each in the high 
schools. A majority of the colleges accept Modern Language 
in place of Latin as a foreign language requirement for ad¬ 
mission. Last session in South Carolina high schools 

2200 pupils studied French, 

110 pupils studied Spanish, 

20 pupils studied German. 

Since the colleges prepare more teachers to teach French 
than other modern languages, it is easier to secure French 
than Spanish and German teachers. Because of their prob¬ 
able contact and relations with people of Latin America, 
it would probably prove more practical for South Carolina 
pupils to study Spanish than to study French. A school that 
is not in a position to offer two years of a foreign language 
should offer none. 

The aims of a high school modern language course should 
be to teach (1) a good working vocabulary, (2) to pronounce 


Contents 


Latin 

Teachers’ 

References 


General 

Statement 


Aims 


128 


Quantity 


French 


Credit 


correctly and intelligently, (3) to translate into simple, idiom¬ 
atic language accurately and fluently, (4) to develop in¬ 
terest in the life, customs, history, and literature of the people 
who speak the language studied. The essentials of the gram¬ 
mar are to be learned thoroughly with the understanding that 
grammar is a mere tool, not an end in itself. 

In a two year modern language course, a standard gram¬ 
mar should be completed and a minimum of from three 
hundred to four hundred pages of prose read. 

Probably ten times as many pupils will have a chance to 
read French occasionally as will have the opportunity of 
speaking it* For this reason, while oral French should be 
practiced and a good French accent approached as near as 
possible, the acquisition of a vocabulary and of a reading 
knowledge is the primary aim. The commonest words, treat¬ 
ing of the home and the school, should be emphasized at first, 
and the work should be enlivened by the teacher by means of 
any outside devices which she may desire. 

The textbook adopted, Chardenal’s Complete French 
Course, begins with exceedingly simple French and is so 
carefully graded that it almost teaches itself. This allows 
ample opportunity for the teacher to devote his energy to oral 
drill, which abounds throughout the book; and to outside con¬ 
versational work based upon the practical vocabulary of the 
text. A thorough foundation will be secured by the carrying 
out of the assignments as they are given in the book. 

In reading the particular edition of L’Abbe Constantin 
which is adopted, special attention should be devoted to the 
notes and Review Exercises. The sentences in these exercises 
may be written at home and brought to class, or some of them 
may be assigned orally after the reading lesson has been 
finished. They have been worked out with exceeding care 
and cover a great many of the difficulties which beginners 
encounter in their first connected reading. 

For completion of Complete French Course, L’Abbe Con¬ 
stantin, and Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon, two credit 
units will be given, provided two full school years are de¬ 
voted to French instruction. If additional reading material 
is needed, it may be selected from the adopted readers. 

The “Direct Method of Teaching French” is a manual 
designed especially for use in connection with the beginning 


129 


direct grammar, “La Classe en Francaise,” by Gourio. Aside 
rom the explanations of the text of the grammar, however, 
there is in this manual a complete technique concerning the 
direct explanation of words and a detailed description of the 
exercises by which they may be fixed in the memory. Since 
the use of the above French texts are optional, they may be 
used in schools where the “Direct Method” is preferred. Com¬ 
pletion of the grammar and the reading of the equivalent 
of what has been outlined above for reading will be required 
for two units if the “Direct Method” is used. 

Joynes and AVesselhoeft s German Grammar, consisting of 
fifty-four lessons, is sufficiently complete for all the grammar 
work of the high school. Part I, consisting of forty lessons, 
will cover the first year’s work, and the rest of the lessons 
the second year’s work. In the first year’s work, only the 
essential elements are taken up, rapid progress being made 
by the successive parts of speech and the verb being devel¬ 
oped side by side in each lesson. In the second part, a com¬ 
plete account of the various parts of speech is given with 
particular reference to the extensive correspondence in Ger¬ 
man and English syntax. There is a total absence of dicta¬ 
tion with respect to methods to be used. The exercises in 
the first part of the lesson contain both reading sections, con¬ 
versational paragraphs and English sentences for written 
translation. It will be found practicable to devote in the 
first year two periods or more, if the time permits, to each 
of the lessons. The various appendixes treating of word 
order, word formation and paradigms will permit of this 
book being used as a reference manual in connection with 
the second year’s reading and composition work. 

Joynes’ Shorter German Reader is a reader for beginners 
composed of fourteen lessons with most serviceable interlinear 
translation and forty reading selections of familiar prose 
and easy poems. The text is simple enough to be begun after 
the first month’s work in elementary grammar. Such early 
reading is especially facilitated by the fact that the first 
fourteen lessons carry ample annotations, as a set of elemen¬ 
tary rules explaining the simple grammatical points necessary 
» 

for the understanding of the text. The quantity of the work 
to be assigned in this reader will depend upon the time that 
can be devoted to reading and upon the corresponding effi- 


German 

Grammar 


German 

Reader 


130 


Spanish 


ciency of the pupil. It will be possible, if the pupils advance 
rapidly enough, to assign for each lesson not only an entire 
reading section, but wherever such sections are short, also 
the corresponding translation exercises based upon these sec¬ 
tions, which will be found on pages 161-168, and which cover 
the first twenty-four lessons. Completion of the grammar 
and reader in two full years will be worth two credit units. 
Supplementary reading may be done. 

Hill’s and Ford’s First Spanish Course consists of fifty 
lessons, and is designed for a course of two years in the 
high school, to be supplemented by a reader or readers. The 
first year’s work consists of Lessons I-XXXVII, inclusive, 
and the second year’s work from XXXYII to the end. In 
the first year’s work only the essentials of grammar are 
taken up, and in the second year there is a review of the 
rules of grammar given in Lessons I-XXXA r II, and also a 
treatment of the more important exceptions to these rules. 
The smaller number of lessons in the second year’s work is 
designed for the purpose of permitting the students to de¬ 
vote a larger number of hours per week to readers and read¬ 
ing texts, as well as to the composition work which is usually 
begun in the second year. There is also an appendix of 46 
pages on the Spanish verb, the study of which will be found 
to be very serviceable in connection with such composition 
work. The First Spanish Course is planned to be used in 
connection with any of the approved methods of Modern 
Language instruction. For the teacher who favors the Trans¬ 
lation Method, there is sufficient material in each lesson for 
translation both from Spanish to English and from English 
to Spanish. For the teacher who prefers the Direct Method, 
there will be found at the end of each lesson a grammatical 
resume consisting of the rules of the lesson in the Spanish 
language. Teachers favoring no one method, but ample oral 
work, will find a section on conversation included in every one 
of the lessons. 

It will be found useful in the first year’s work to devote 
two or three days to each of the earlier lessons. As the pupils 
progress and, in the second semester of the first year, wish 
to take up a few hours per week with a reader, Elementary 
Spanish-American Reader may be begun. For two full school 


131 


years devoted to a completion of First Spanish Course and 

Elementary Spanish-American Reader, two units will be 
given. 

Health : 

A complete health program should include all health ac¬ 
tivities of public schools, viz.: 

(a) A careful health examination which should include: 

(1) Physical examination. 

(2) Mental examination. 

(3) Medical inspection. 

(b) A healthful school environment. 

(c) A healthful home environment. 

(d) Proper physical activities: 

(1) Play space. 

(2) Equipment. 

(3) Kind of exercise. 

(4) Physical director. 

(e) Instruction in health facts. 

Health examinations are recommended and left to the de¬ 
cision of the local authorities. A healthful school environ¬ 
ment has been discussed on pages 14-17 of this manual. The 
influence of a proper school environment and conferences 
between parents and teachers can frequently secure a health¬ 
ful home environment. Proper physical activities are par¬ 
tially provided for on page 32 of this manual. 

Health instruction should include: 

(a) The practical elementary problems which concern 
health; as, for example, diet, care of the teeth, sleep, exer¬ 
cise, and bathing at school and at home. 

(b) The general conditions relating to health, as room 
temperature, ventilation, dust, school seating, and posture. 

(c) The public health problems, like sewerage disposal, 
milk and water supplies, and general control of infectious 
diseases. 

The course of study provides for very little health instruc¬ 
tion. Biology, pages 399 to 520, is devoted to a fine treat¬ 
ment of Human Biology with emphasis upon physiology and 
hygiene. General science in its treatment of “Bacteria and 
Other Disease Germs,” “Water Supply and Sewerage Dis¬ 
posal,” “The Utilization of Food in Animals,” “Hygienic 


Complete 

Program 


Health 

Instruction 


Health 

References 


132 

Aspects of Nutrition,” devotes 57 pages to a treatment of 
public health problems and elements of nutrition. As no 
credit courses can be given for health instruction, the princi¬ 
pal must exercise some ingenuity to prevent his pupils leaving 
high school with faulty health habits. Each pupil should 
devote at least one fifteen-minute period a week to learning 
important health facts. Two twenty-minute periods are de¬ 
sirable. Through the use of charts, supplementary reading, 
and health talks, the principal or teacher should stress the 
financial, social and moral values of continued good health, 
which can be secured only by the observance of certain defi¬ 
nite laws relating to personal hygiene. For instance, every 
pupil should know the importance of proper diet as a basis 
of good health. He should know that a lack of milk may cause 
bad teeth, weak eyes, faulty posture, and a weakened resist¬ 
ance that makes him an easy prey to tuberculosis and other 
infectious and contagious diseases. The ill effect of too much 
or too little exercise, the necessity for proper rest periods, 
and the importance of securing enough sleep cannot be over¬ 
emphasized. Charts showing correct posture should be dis¬ 
played conspicuously. The results of scientific studies which 
show improvement of backward children when correct health 
habits are adopted make splendid subjects for short health 
talks. The attention of the child and his teachers should 
be called to popular health articles in current periodicals. 
Health literature may be secured from such organizations 
as the American Red Cross and Anti-Tuberculosis Associa¬ 
tion and distributed to the pupils, and parents and enthusi¬ 
astic teachers may organize health clubs. No one doubts the 
necessity for strong, healthy bodies as the proper foundation 
for strong healthy minds, but we have falsely taken the stand 
that healthy bodies are accidents of nature and that they 
may be preserved without any knowledge of how they should 
be cared for. 

Teachers may secure health charts, pamphlets, and other 
valuable material related to school health problems from such 
organizations as the following: 

1. Committee on Health Problems of the National Council 
of Education, 525 West 120th Street, New York City. 

2. The American Physical Educational Association, 93 
Westford Ave., Springfield, Mass. 


133 


3. The Child Health Organization of America, 370 Seventh 
Ave., New York City. 

4. United States Public Health Service, Washington, D. C. 

5. The American Physical Education Review, a monthly 
publication, price $3.00 per year, should be made available 
to all high school teachers, Springfield, Mass. 

6. Bulletin, 1917, No. 50, Superintendent Public Docu¬ 
ments, Washington, D. C. 

Manual Training or Arts : 

“Manual training or manual arts should not be confused Manual Arts 
with vocational training. The aim of each of the above 
types of work is distinctly different from vocational train¬ 
ing. Manual training or Manual arts can be defined as those 
subjects which give the student an appreciation of the ways 
and means by which many articles manufactured in the in¬ 
dustrial world are constructed; an education through doing. 

Working with the concrete in order that pupils may more 
clearly understand the abstract is manual training or manual 
arts. Vocational training has one specific aim, that of train¬ 
ing for the actual doing in industry, and may be defined as 
that type of training which fits for employment in a gainful 
occupation. Many subjects other than wood and metal work¬ 
ing will find their place in a manual training curriculum, 

‘printing, book-binding, textiles, etc.,’ and students in many 
communities would profit by such manual training instruc¬ 
tion. Where wood-working is taught as a manual training 
subject it should be correlated with both freehand and me¬ 
chanical drawing. At least one double period each day 
should be given to manual training work, alternating be¬ 
tween shop work and mechanical and freehand drawing. 

Single periods for shop work are of little, if any, value, as 
a great deal of time is consumed in getting ready to work 
and cleaning up before the entering of another class. Such 
necessary preparation would leave approximately one-half 
hour for actual work. No prescribed course of study other 
than a simple outline should be used by the teacher. En¬ 
couraging initiative by suggesting the construction of va¬ 
rious things for the home or farm, stimulating the power 
of visualizing, placing the picture upon paper, appreciating 


134 


Bookkeeping 


gracefulness of design, harmony of color, rigidity in con¬ 
struction, and the value of all things that are made by ‘the 
sweat of the brow, ’ are some of the many reasons why manual 
training should have its place in the high school curric¬ 
ulum. 7 ’* 

General extra-credit courses in Manual Arts may be given. 
Two ninety-minute periods a week throughout the eighth or 
ninth grade may be devoted to these courses. An intensive 
course in manual arts for which a credit unit may be given 
requires a minimum of five ninety-minute periods a week 
for thirty-six weeks. For this type of course equipment 
must be adequate. 

» 

Vocational Subjects : 

It is not necessary that a school have a regularly organized 
Vocational Curriculum for bookkeeping to be taught. In 
fact, bookkeeping is an appropriate subject for a general cur¬ 
riculum. The New Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping stresses 
principles as well as practices. The course is designed for 
one year and requires the use of the textbook, four blank 
books, incoming vouchers, and such business forms as bills, 
receipts, checks, notes, drafts, invoices, account sales, bills 
of lading, and lease and contract forms, all of which are 
published by American Book Company and provided for in 
the adoption. The course is built upon theory first, practice 
last. Directions for translations and practice are given in 
the textbook. In giving this course every transaction and 
all practice work indicated by the text must be done by every 
pupil taking the course if credit is given. Legible penman¬ 
ship, neatness, and accuracy and speed in computations 
should be required. Pupils should be familiarized with forms 
of business letters and have some practice in writing and 
answering telegrams and advertisements. One unit will be 
given for the completion of the course which will require 
five periods a week for thirty-six weeks. Eighty or ninety- 
minute periods should be devoted to bookkeeping. If this is 
done no home work will be required. The carrying back and 
forth of the large text and sets is inconvenient to pupils, 
and often causes important forms to be lost. 


*H. B. Adams, State Supervisor of Trade and Industrial Education. 




135 


No credit will be given for stenography unless two units 
of stenography and one unit of typewriting are completed. 
The Gregg system is recommended. By the end of the first 
year a speed of 75 words per minute should be attained on 
practice matter. In the first semester of the second year, 
much attention should be given to office training and com¬ 
mercial correspondence. By the end of the second year the 
pupil should attain a speed of ninety words a minute on 
new matter for five minutes and should be able to transcribe 
it accurately on the following day. 

Five forty-minute periods per week for thirty-six weeks 
constitutes a half unit of work in typewriting. Typewriting 
with stenography is required. While it is very desirable that 
pupils who take bookkeeping have the typewriting, it is not 
required with bookkeeping. To earn credit, work in type¬ 
writing must be done on a standard forty-two key double 
character machine, and the touch system must be used ex¬ 
clusively. Use of the eraser should be prohibited and only a 
limited number of errors should be accepted in each prac¬ 
tice drill. Speed and accuracy in transcribing should be 
stressed. Systematic study of the devices of the typewriter 
should be made by each pupil and practice in utilization of 
these devices should be provided. The various process'es of 
copying, manifolding, and duplicating should be studied. 

AGRICULTURE: STATE AND SMITH-HUGHES.* 

The teaching of agriculture in the high schools of the State 
has now been in operation for five years and has become a 
definite part of the school system. The following are the 
principal requirements for the work under the Federal 
Smith-Hughes Law: 

1. Each pupil studying agriculture must devote at least 
ninety minutes of time to it daily. 

2. All pupils enrolled in agriculture must carry some sort 
of supervised practice work under the direction of the agri¬ 
cultural teacher. 

agriculture. 

3. The school must enroll not fewer than twelve pupils in 

*Prepared by Verd Peterson, State Supervisor of Agricultural In¬ 
struction. 


Stenography 


Typewriting 


Requirements 






136 


Salaries 

of 

Teachers 


State 

Aided 

Agriculture 


4. A classroom, reference material, and apparatus must be 
provided for the work. 

5. Teachers to do this work must be graduates of a State 
Agricultural College and should have completed the course 
in Teacher-Training before they take up the work. 

6. Teachers must be employed for twelve months in the 
year and during the time school is not in session should de¬ 
vote their time to the supervision of the pupils’ home projects 
and to work among the farmers of the community. 

7. Agriculture is a regular subject in the high school cur¬ 
riculum, and if a pupil completes a year’s work, including 
the project, he receives one and one-half units of credit up 
to a total of four units. The agricultural teacher is a reg¬ 
ular member of the teaching staff of the school and subject 
to the regulations for other teachers. 

The salaries of agricultural teachers are paid one-half by 
the Federal government, one-fourth by the State, and one- 
fourth by the local schools. All salaries must be agreed upon 
by the local school authorities and the State Department of 
Education. If for any reason a community cares to pay 
more than the total salary that can be approved by the State 
Department, it is permissible, provided that the community 
pays all the additional part. 

State Aided Classes: 

In order that agriculture may be taught in the smaller high 
schools, the Legislature has provided for the teaching of 
agriculture through State Aid. This State Aided work is 
used as a stepping stone to the Federal Aided work. The 
chief difference in the two is that in the State Aided work 
Science is taught along with the Agriculture, and other 
pupils may be enrolled in the Science. 

A double period is given to Agriculture and Science. Grad¬ 
uates of an Agricultural College are desirable for this work 
but are not required. 

All teachers taking up the teaching of State Aided Agri¬ 
culture must have completed at least one six-weeks’ summer 
school for agricultural teachers before taking up the work. 
State Aided teachers must attend at least three four-weeks’ 
summer schools in Agriculture in succession. 


137 


For the first year a teacher works in a school the school 
may receive $20.00 per month aid for agriculture, for the 
second year for the same teacher, $25.00, and for the third 
year $30.00 per month. 

This State Aided work makes it possible for a great many 
farm boys to receive instruction in Agriculture who could 
not otherwise receive it. 


Course of Study: 

The subject matter in agriculture should be selected to 
suit the farming interests of the locality, the pupils to be in¬ 
structed, and the teaching accommodations available. 

In many of the schools not more than two years of agri¬ 
culture can be given to an advantage. In case only two 
years are given the time should be divided between Plant 
Production the first year, and Animal Production the second 
year. Some Cost Accounting and Farm Shop work may be 
given in each year. The subject matter should be organized 
on the short-unit course basis and taught according to sea¬ 
sonal sequence. 

The first year should be given to a study of the farm, 
crops of the community. The cost accounting necessary for 
records and an understanding of the project work should 
be correlated with this year’s work wherever convenient. 

The second year’s work should be a study of farm animals. 
Cost Accounting should be taught to assist in carrying the 
project work. Some Farm Shop Problems should be cor¬ 
related with the projects. 

In the third year Orcharding and Horticultural subjects 
should be taught to suit the interests of the community. Cost 
Accounting and Farm Shop can be correlated with this 
year’s work. Some Farm Management, Farm Mechanics, and 
Rural Economics may be taught in this year. 

In this course the first and second years are about the 
same as in these years of the three year course. 

The third year should be made up mainly of Horticul¬ 
ture with some study of special crops. Cost Accounting for 
project work and Farm Shop problems may be correlated 
with this work. 

Farm Management, Farm Organization, and Farm Me¬ 
chanics may be taught in the fourth year. The project work 


Two Year 
Course 


Three Yeai 
Course 


Four Year 
Course 


138 

this year should be organized and started when school opens 
so that it may be completed by the close of school. 

Supervised Practice Work : 

All pupils studying agriculture must carry supervised 
practice work for at least six months and this work should 
require at least ninety minutes of the pupil’s time per day 
for as many days as the school is in session. The major 
part of the supervised practice work should run parallel 
with the subject matter taught. That is, when pupils are , 
studying field crops at school they should be doing their 
supervised practice work in field crops at home. 

The supervised practice may consist of major projects^ 
minor projects, problems, skills. 

The major project as stated above is the chief piece of 
practical work undertaken by the pupil, and should be 
parallel with the class instruction the year it is undertaken. 

The minor project may be a smaller piece of work and 
may follow up work on last year’s class work or may an¬ 
ticipate next year’s work. These minor projects may be 
closely related to the major project. If the major project 
is growing hogs, then the minor project may be growing corn 
to feed them. 

There are often many problems on the farm that need 
solution, such as repairing and cleaning up the poultry house 
and pruning and renovating the family orchard. 

There are also many skills the pupils may need to learn r 
such as running a mower, operating a tractor and operat¬ 
ing a cream separator. Each pupil in order to make the 
supervised practice as rich as possible should undertake a 
major project, a minor project, and some problems and 
skills. 

The State Supervisors of Agriculture have prepared a 
uniform supervised practice notebook for the use of the 
agricultural pupils. These notebooks are of much assistance 
to the teachers in keeping up their supervision of the prac¬ 
tical work. 

In order to get high school credit for agriculture a pupil 
must first complete the supervised practice work. Each 


139 


teacher must submit to the State office some time early in 
the spring a statement of the supervised practice work his 
pupils are to undertake for the coming year. 

After this work has been completed some time during the 
next school year a final report must be submitted to the 
State office showing the financial outcome of each pupil’s 
project. 

Aims and Methods: 

The purpose of the teaching of vocational agriculture is The 
to prepare people to live on and operate farms so as to 
secure a living out of farming, and at the same time build 
comfortable country homes and make the country a whole¬ 
some place to live. 

This aim, of course, affects to some extent the methods 
used in instruction. Because of the practical nature of 
agricultural instruction the old formal methods of in¬ 
struction do not serve very well. There must be equip¬ 
ment suited to teaching of agriculture provided in the 
school. 

The State Department of Education furnishes a suggested 
list of this equipment. 

There must be plenty of reference material in the form 
of agricultural books, bulletins, farm papers and magazines. 

The following is a partial list: 

Books: 

Soils and Fertilizers, Lyon— Macmillan. 

Productive Soils, Weir— Lippincott. 

Dairy Farming, Eckles & Warren— Macmillan. 

Essentials in Poultry Raising, Kaup— Johnson. 

Productive Orcharding, Sears —Lippincott. 

Vegetable Growing, Lloyd— Lippincott. 

Woodworking for Beginners— Manual Arts Press. 

Farm Management, Warren— Macmillan. 

Equipment for Farm and Farmstead, Ramsower— 

Ginn. 

Agricultural Engineering, Davidson— Webh. 

Agricultural Economics, Boyle— Lippincott. 


140 


Field Crops for Cotton Belt, Morgan— Macmillan. 
Southern Field Crops, Duggar— Macmillan. 

Insect Pests of Farm, Garden and Orchard, Sander¬ 
son.— Macmillan. 

Weeds, Georgia— Macmillan. 

Feeds and Feeding— Henry N. Morrison. 

Common Diseases of Farm Animals, Craig— Lippin- 
cott. 

Productive Bee Keeping, Pellett— Lippincott. 
Productive Poultry Husbandry, Lewis— Lippincott. 
Manual of Fruit Diseases, Hesler & Whetsel— Mac¬ 
millan. 

Agricultural Woodworking, Roehl— Bruce Publishing 
Company. 

Harness Repairing, Roehl— Bruce Publishing Com¬ 
pany. 

Farm Shop Work, Brace & Mayne— American Booh 
Company. 

Mechanics of the Household, Keene— McGraw-Hill. 
Farm Buildings, Foster & Carter— Wiley. 

Papers : 

The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, N. C. 

Howard’s Dairyman, Fort Atkinson, Wis. 

Country Gentleman— Curtis Publishing Company, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Breeders’ Gazette— Sanders Publishing Company, 
Chicago, III. 

Bulletins : 

Lists of available bulletins may be secured from the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and Clemson 
College. These bulletins are free for the asking. 

In order to make the best use of these references it is best 
to use some supervised study in the instruction. That pupils 
may come in contact with concrete things and farm activities 
the class must take trips to the farms and into the fields. 
It is often well that the teacher or some other skilled worker 
demonstrate the different agricultural activities to the class. 
Laboratory exercises are often necessary in teaching different 
topics. 


141 


One can readily see that the recitation, laboratory, field 
trip, and supervised study exercises must be used in teaching 
agriculture. 

Schools best suited for teaching agriculture are those that 
are located in the rural sections or that enroll a large group 
of boys living on farms. 

Wherever agriculture is introduced for the boys it is well 
to introduce home economics for the girls. Girls may be ad¬ 
mitted to the agriculture classes but in most cases this is not 
altogether desirable. 

Schools contemplating putting on agricultural work should 
write the State Supervisor of Agriculture, State Department 
of Education, Columbia, for information several months be¬ 
fore they contemplate beginning the work. 

TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION, SMITH- 

HUGHES* 

All cities with a population of twenty-five thousand or 
more may organize and operate for all children fourteen 
years of age or over trade-classesf in any occupation which 
offers an opportunity for employment. Any trade class 
meeting the following requirements is eligible for State and 
Federal aid for three-quarters of the salary of each voca¬ 
tional instructor. The minimum enrollment for each class 
is ten pupils. Each class must run for thirty-six weeks per 
year with not less than thirty hours of instruction per week. 
For each thirty hours of instruction per week, fifteen hours, 
or fifty per cent., must be spent in actual shop work, ten 
hours or approximately twenty per cent, of the time must be 
spent in subjects related to shop work, such as trade math¬ 
ematics, trade science, trade drawing, etc. The remainder 
of the time must be spent in nonrelated work, such as English, 
civics, etc. Each type of instruction given must have all of 
the necessary shop equipment that should be found in a 
commercial shop with the necessary blackboards, charts, 
drawing equipments, etc. 

^Prepared by H. B. Adams, State Supervisor of Industrial In¬ 
struction. 

f A trade-class is one in which a group of students attend instruction 
for six hours a day in any line of endeavor they choose to follow; i.e., 
carpentry, printing, auto mechanics, machine work, sheet metal work, etc. 


Type of 

School 


Requirements 



142 


Part-time 

Classes 


Evening 

Schools 


These classes might be held in the school or in a shop. In 
general, the most convenient place is where the necessary 
equipment is available. 

A city or town regardless of population may organize part- 
time classes* for those entering upon employment or already 
employed, provided they meet the following requirements: 

The minimum enrollment for each class is ten pupils. 
Each class must run for at least one hundred and forty-four 
hours during any school year (preferably one hour or more 
each day for the five days in each week for approximately 
thirty weeks). If the class wishes to continue beyond the 
minimum requirement, the State Department of Education 
will aid them to carry on this work in every way possible. 
The instruction given in these classes may be anything 
that will increase the civic or vocational intelligence, or 
both, of the students. The State and Federal government 
will financially aid the local community for three-quarters 
of the salary of each vocational instructor employed, 
provided that he or she has the necessary qualifications and 
has been approved by the State Supervisor of Industrial 
Instruction. 

Any type of vocational work that will increase the voca¬ 
tional intelligence of those employed during the day is 
eligible to Federal Aid to the amount of three-quarters 
of the salary of each instructor. These classes generally run 
for ten weeks, two evenings per week of two hours each. 
For further information about any of this work, address 
H. B. Adams, State Supervisor of Trade and Industrial 
Education, State Department of Education, Columbia, S. C. 

HOME ECONOMICS: SMITH-HUGHES AND STATEf 

Two kinds of home economics courses have been offered, 
namely: 

1. Intensive courses which are full time credit courses, 
offered as one of the four major courses in the High 
School curriculum. 

*A part-time class is one in which a group of students attend in¬ 
struction for one or more hours per day out of their regular working 
hours to further increase their civic or vocational intelligence, or both. 

fPrepared by Miss Lillian Holfman, State Supervisor of Home 
Economics. 





143 


2. General courses which meet two or three times of 
varying length per week and for which no credit 
toward State High School diploma may be given. 

The intensive home economics course is fostered by the 
Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Law and funds for its 
support and development are available to the various schools 
that fulfill its requirements for this financial support. 

In view of the fact that home-making is now recognized 
a piofession and that all women, no matter what their pro¬ 
fession in life, must learn how to achieve an efficient living, 
the Federal Government, in cooperation with the State, pro¬ 
vides some funds for carrying on this work. 

In order to participate in the Smith-Hughes economics 
funds, a school must fulfill the requirements of the law as 
herein listed: 

All-day Schools: 

1. School must be under public supervision or control. 

2. Controlling purpose to fit for the profession of home¬ 
making. 

3. Instruction less than college grade. 

4. Minimum age of admission shall be fourteen years. 

5. Character and content of course may be of two kinds as 
follows: 

In cities of less than 25,000 population, 150 minutes 
daily may be given to home economics subjects or a min¬ 
imum of ninety minutes daily to home economics subjects 
and 60 minutes daily or its equivalent (two ninety- 
minute and three forty-five-minute periods per week) 
may be given to related subjects throughout the school 
year of not less than thirty-two weeks. 

In cities of more than 25,000 population, 180 minutes 
daily may be given to home economics subjects or 120 
minutes daily to home economics subjects and 60 min¬ 
utes daily or its equivalent as listed in an earlier part 
of this paragraph to related subjects, throughout the 
school year of not less than thirty-six weeks. 


Require¬ 

ments 


Period 

Lengths 


Subjects 

Included 


Equipment 


Teacher 

Training 


144 

Home economics subjects include foods and cookery, 
textiles and clothing, house planning and furnishing, 
home nursing with emphasis on maintenance of health, 
child care, and home management. 

Related subjects include general science as applied to 
the home, physiology, biology, household physics, house¬ 
hold chemistry, drawing and design as applied to the 
household decoration. 

6. The Home Economics teacher shall teach the related 
subjects to the girls of the home economics classes. 

7. Further information relative to equipping home eco¬ 
nomics departments may be secured from State Sup¬ 
ervisor of Home Economics. 

8. Sufficient plant and equipment will be required to carry 
on satisfactory work. The amount and cost of equipment 
will depend upon the size and needs of school. For the 
average rural high school the equipment will cost about 
$400. For the larger high school it will cost more. 

The State has had a very small fund available for as¬ 
sistance in purchase of equipment for needy schools. This 
money is reimbursed to local communities for home eco¬ 
nomics departments that are in session the full school day 
for home economics instruction, upon the approval and 
recommendation of the State Department of Education. 

9. A reasonable amount of operating expenses sufficient 
to secure reasonable standards of work. This operating 
expense should provide the needs of the foods laboratory 
which should not be less than 4 cents per student per 
day. 

10. The home economics teacher must be a graduate of a 
four-year course in teacher-training of home economics 
or its equivalent, following a standard four-year high 
school course, and should also present evidence of having 
had at least two years of successful practical experience 
in the home. 

This teacher training course in home economics must 
give to home economics subjects from 25 per cent, to 35 
per cent, of its time; to related subjects, 20 per cent, to 


145 


25 per cent, of its time; to professional subjects, 12 per 
cent, to 15 per cent, of its time, and to general subjects 
and electives remainder to make 100 per cent. 

This teacher-training course emphasizes student-teach¬ 
ing in home economics and residence in a practice home 
as two big essential factors in the training of teachers 
of home economics for Smith-Hughes teaching. 

Graduates of this full course will be entitled to a pro¬ 
fessional Home Economics certificate, which will entitle 
the holders to teach home economics in any school in 
this State organized under the Smith-Hughes Act. This 
certificate may be exchanged in another State for a like 
certificate issued in that State. 


The State Board has adopted the following plan for the 
distribution of the funds for Smith-Hughes home economics: 

A. A school may receive by fulfilling the Smith-Hughes 
requirements as listed, one-half of the salary of a home 
economics teacher from Federal funds and one-fourth 
of the salary to be paid from State funds, leaving one- 
fourth of the salary to be paid from local funds. This 
reimbursement is made according to the State salary 
scale for reimbursement of not more than $1,000 for a 
teacher of home economics during her first year of serv¬ 
ice, $1,100 for her second year of service and $1,200 for 
her third or more years of service. 

Proposed two-year course of home economics for High 
Schools that will meet the Smith-Hughes requirements and 
will at the same time prepare students for college entrance. 


Funds 

Available 


Two year 
Smith- 
Hughes 
Course 


First Year: 

1. Home Economics. 5-90 min. periods 1 unit. 

Food Study, sewing, textiles, 
home management, and sani- or 

tation. 

2. Related Subject. 5-60 min periods 1 Unit. 

General Science or its equiva¬ 
lent. (2-90 min. & 3 45-min.) 

3. English. 5-45 or 60 min. periods 1 Unit. 

4. Mathematics. 5-45 or 60 min. periods 1 Unit. 


146 


State 

Home 

Economics 


Second Year : 

1. Home Economics. 5-90 min. periods 1 Unit 

Food study, meal planning, 
home nursing, budgeting, and 
elementary dressmaking. 

2. Related Subject. 5-60 minute periods 1 Unit 

Biology or its equivalent. (2-90 min. and 3-45 min.) 

3. English. 5-45 min. or 60 min. 1 Unit 

4. Mathematics. 5-45 min. or 60 min. 1 Unit 

In schools of 25,000 population this same daily schedule 

for high school pupils may be followed with the changing 
of 90 minutes to 120 minutes for home economics. 

In order to give schools unable to meet the Smith-Hughes 
requirements for home economics an opportunity to offer 
courses in home economics, the State Legislature has pro¬ 
vided a small fund to be used for this purpose. The fol¬ 
lowing requirements must be fulfilled before a school is eli¬ 
gible for aid from this fund: 

1. Ninety minutes daily given to home economics instruc¬ 
tion in each of two classes. This plan will give a stu¬ 
dent an opportunity to earn two units of credit in home 
economics. 

2. Each class must enroll a minimum of ten students and 
a maximum of not more than twenty-five students. 

3. Adequate housing, equipping and maintenance shall 
meet the requirements as outlined in the State plan 
for Smith-Hughes home economics. 

4. The teacher of home economics must be a graduate of 
a four-year course in home economics beyond the four 
year high school. Graduates of this full course will be 
entitled to a special Home Economics Certificate which 
will entitle the holder to teach in the State aided home 
economics departments in South Carolina. The State 
Board has adopted the following plan for the distribu¬ 
tion of funds for State aided schools: 

A. A school may receive by fulfilling the requirements 
for State aided home economics, $240 for the first 
year, $300 for the second year, and $360 for the 
third and each succeeding year in addition to the 
regular State High School Aid. 


147 


These State aided schools compare with the Smith-Hughes 
aided schools as follows: 


State Aided 

Home Economics, 90 min. 
daily. 

Science recommended but 
not segregated. 

Teacher gives 180 minutes of 
her time to home econ. 
Other time may be devoted 
to teaching other High 
School subjects. 

Teacher holds a Special 
Home Economics Certifi¬ 
cate. 

State Aid $240. 


Smith-Hughes Aided 

Home Economics, 90 min. 
daily. 

Related Science, 60 min. 
daily. 

Classes segregated in related 
science. 

Teacher gives full time to 
home economics. 

Teacher holds a Professional 
Home Economics Certifi¬ 
cate. 

Federal and State $750. 


Reference Books for Teachers of Home Economics: 

✓ 

Clothing for Women, Baldt— Lippincott Co., Philadel¬ 
phia. 

Clothing, Choice, Care and Cost, Woolman— Lippincott 
Co., Philadelphia. 

Textiles, Woolman & McGowan— Macmillan Co., New 
York. 

Food Products, Sherman— Macmillan Co., New York. 

Chemistry of Foods and Nutrition, Sherman— Macmillan 
Co., New York. 

Successful Canning and Preserving, Powell— Lippincott 
Co., Philadelphia. 

Table Service, Allen— Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 

Up-to-date Waitress, Hill— Little, Brown & Co., Boston . 

Home and Community Hygiene, Broadhurst —Lippincott 
Co., Philadelphia. 

Housewifery, Balderston— Lippincott Co., Philadelphia . 

The Business of the Household. Taber— Lippincott Co., 
Philadelphia. 

A Manual of Homemaking, Van Rensselear, Rose & Can¬ 
non— Macmillan Co., New York. 

Furnishing the Modest Home, Daniels— Atkinson, Meyit- 
zer & Grover, New York. 





148 


The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition, McCollum— Atkin¬ 
son, Mentzer & Grover, New York. 

Dietetics for High Schools, Willard & Gillett— Macmillan 
Co., Neiv York. 

Care and Feeding of Children, Holt— Macmillan Co., 
New York. 

Personal Hygiene and Home Nursing, Lippitt— World 
Book Co., New York. 

Teaching of Home Economics, Cooley, Winchell and 
other— Macmillan Co., New York. 

Magazines for Home Economics Department : 

Journal of Home Economics—1211 Cathedral St., Bal¬ 
timore, Md. 

American Cookery —Boston Cooking School Magazine 
Co., Boston. 

Good Housekeeping—119 W. 4 Oth St., New York. 

American Food Journal— Chicago, III. 

Bulletins for Home Economics Departments : 

Each school should be placed on the mailing list of U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., Federal 
Board of Vocational Education, Superintendent of Docu¬ 
ments, Washington, and the Extension Division of the various 
Agricultural Colleges. 

Federal Board for Vocational Education has published 
three bulletins which will prove of great assistance to every 
teacher of home economics. These bulletins should be se¬ 
cured, catalogued and kept in usable form, in every home 
economics department: 

Clothing for the Family, Bulletin No. 23, Home Eco¬ 
nomics Series No. 3. 

Use and Preparation of Foods, Bulletin No. 35, Home 
Economics Series No. 3. 

The Home Project—Its Use in Homemaking Education, 
Home Education Series No. 4. 

Kequirements for Diploma High Schools: 

A four-year curriculum. 

A thirty-six week (180 day) school year. 

The full time of at least three high school teachers. 

Fifteen credit units grouped as on page 24. 


INDEX 


Page 

Adopted Texts . 43 

Aesthetic Features .. 44 

Agriculture, State and Smith-Hughes . 435 

Aim of Secondary Education . 5 

Algebra .. 94 

Annual Report . 49 

Arithmetic . 94 

Bi o^gy ... 405 

Bookkeeping . 434 

Books for Principal . 34 

Budget Defined . 35 

Building . 9 

Building Procedure . 41 

Bulletins of Commission . 5 

Caesar. 425 

Care of Toilets . 15 

Chemistry .. 109 

Cicero . 126 

» 

Civic Sciences . 103 

Cleaning School Grounds and Building . 15 

Community Civics . 91 

Constants . 48 

Cost and Maintenance Levies. 35 

Curriculum Plan . 46 

Curriculums, four-year . 47 

Curriculums, three-year. 49 

Determining Curriculums . 50 

Diploma Requirements. 48 

Diplomas, State High School . 24 

Double and Single Daily Sessions. 40 

Elective Plan . 46 

































11 


Index 


English Composition . 59 

English, General Aims. 56 

English Literature . 72 

English Literature, Substitutions not Authorized. 85 

English, Point of View . 59 

English, Summarized by Grades. 82 

English Teachers’ Bibliography. 85 

English Texts, Viewpoint . 71 

Equipment . 12 

Examinations . 53 

Extra Classroom Activities . 36 

Federal Aid . 21 

Finance . 34 

French. 128 

General Science ... 103 

Geography . 109 

Geometry, Plane . 96 

Geometry, Solid . 97 

German ..:. .. 129 

Health Instruction . 131 

Health Program . 131 

Health References. 133 

History Aims . 85 

History, General . 92 

History Methods . 90 

History Teachers’ Bibliography. 90 

History, United States . 92 

Home Economics, State and Smith-Hughes. 143 

Inspection of Cleaning and Health. 16 

Janitor Service . 16 

Latin, Beginners’. 123 

Latin Teachers ’ Magazine ...... . 127 

Latin Values. 122 

Latin, When to Offer. 123 

Law Governing High Schools . 19 





































Index 


iii 

Page 


Levies, Cost and Maintenance . 35 

Library Room . 36 

Magazines for Principal . 30 

Manual Training or Arts . 133 

Mathematics, General Aims . 93 

Mathematics, References for Teachers . 97 

Mathematics, Quality of Instruction. 94 

Mathematics, Tendencies . 92 

Mathematics, Types of Mathematical Needs . 93 

Modern World. 92 

Objectives of Secondary Education . 5 

Organization Chart . 25 

Periods per Teacher . 52 

Physics . 116 

Principal’s Administrative Duties . 27 

Principal, Distribution of Time . 27 

Principal of High School . 26 

Pupils per Teacher. 52 

Rating, How Done . 54 

Record Systems . 18 

References, General, for Teachers . 51 

Rules of State Board . 21 

Schedules, Administering of . 41 

Schedule, Sample . 42 

School Board . 25 

School Council . 33 

Science, Classroom Procedure . 101 

Science, Constants. 102 

Science, General Aim . 98 

Science, Laboratory Procedure . 98 

Science Teachers’ References . 122 

Secretary to Principal. 34 

Semesters. 53 

Service Features . 11 

Shop Early. H 





































IV 


Index 


Page 

Site and Grounds . 9 

Spanish . 130 

State Aid .. 19 

State Board, Authority of. 21 

State High School Diplomas . 24 

i 

Stenography . 135 

Subjects per Pupil . 49 

Subject Rooms .. 52 

Supervision. 38 

Teachers, Qualifications and Duties . 32 

Texts, Adopted . 43 

Trade and Industrial Education. 141 

Typewriting . 135 

Ventilation, Lights etc. 14 


i 





















